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tv   Media Buzz  FOX News  March 8, 2020 8:00am-9:00am PDT

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so it's easy on her budget and her life. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa howie: on buzzfeed of the sunday so many are stunned as joe biden rolls up one super tuesday victory after another. >> the idea that we are sitting here contemplating that joe biden could be ahead at the end of the night is so remarkable. >> a lot of people thought that he would drop out of the race. >> i've never heard anything like it. >> this has been most impressive 72 hours i've ever seen in american politics. >> joe biden was done. howie: how did the media get the coverage of the former vp incredible by wrong?
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as elizabeth warren drops out many in the press cry sexism. >> it feels in terms of the prospects of having a woman for president in our elections. >> oh, god, please no, that can't be right. howie: are the media really saying that warren's campaign collapse because she's a woman? chuck schumer gets a tongue lashing from chief justice roberts. plus msnbc pushes out chris matthews. >> let me start with me headline tonight. i'm retiring from msnbc.
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i'm howard kurtz and this is media buzz. ♪ ♪ howie: when joe biden had a huge super tuesday win, 10 states from massachusetts to texas couldn't resist at jabs at media establishment that had left him for dead. >> i'm here to report we are very much alive. [cheers and applause] howie: don't forget it was just a come of weeks ago after iowa, new hampshire, most pundits were writing off joe biden's campaign, done, toast, on life support and even urging him to quit. >> i think he is on his way out the door. >> looks like joe biden's campaign is collapsing or on the verge of collapse. >> he's not going to be president and it's very hard for him, i'm sure. howie: kamala harris jumping on the endorsement wand bagon this morning, i have to ask how did media botch this so badly.
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mollie hemingway, gillian turner, fox news correspondent in washington. capri cafaro, former democratic senator in ohio. mollie, what explains the miscalculation of joe biden? the press basically, literally wrote him off. >> they did but for good reason, he performed horribly in iowa and new hampshire. it worked and it was a stunning 72 hours and impress i have to see what happened. part of it was also that the media decided to get behind him right before super tuesday and, you know, did not get behind bernie sanders in the same way. howie: right, for all of the negative coverage. biden did get clobber in the beginning. everyone knew that iowa and new hampshire were not good states
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for him. journalists that we saw in clips, you're out, you're toast, you should drop out when only a fraction of the delegates have been chosen? >> well, biden maybe the oldest comeback kid that we have seen in decades. it was really a spectacular thing the way the media resuscitated him during 48 hours proceeding super tuesday. part of the problem with biden and i've been talking to reporters who have been with him out on the trail for a long time, they've been saying since he got into this thing that he was toast, that he was going to drop out, his campaign was really dead, on shoe string. it wasn't like they killed him and brought him later. howie: too old, too out of touch, not liberal enough, but on this point, so amy klobuchar and pete buttigieg getting out and endorsing him and then you
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had the media filled with warnings from party insiders that if bernie sanders has big super tuesday he would be unstoppable. did the press pound home the message that biden had to win otherwise bernie sanders would get annihilated in the fall? >> i think the prez was on the fact that texas and california were going to be in the bag for bernie sanders, that he was able to build a strong coalition with latinos where, you know, biden had a strong african-american backing and so basically i think the way that they set it up even post south carolina was biden is going to do well in the southeast because he basically can only win with african americans and bernie is going sweep every place else because the momentum has been on his side. i think that the press got it wrong in one very important way. there's assumption that's been really pushed by the media, frankly on both sides, that democrats are way more progressive than they really are and i think that this is a huge
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wake-up call out of super tuesday. howie: journalists who spend too much time on twitter, in my view. >> indeed. howie: he was broke and turns out he didn't money to win 10 states. the journalists also build up mike bloomberg as saver and he imploded on super tuesday and got out the next morning. >> i think they thought of him as the guy who would rescue them from bernie sanders or what not. but it was really that debate performance that he hurt himself with that debate performance and the media followed to boot, but the money really was a big issue. i do think that the media need to realize after having many examples of people having a lot of money. hillary clinton outspent trump 2 to 1 and bloomberg spent half a billion dollars in just a few short days and still wasn't able to buy all the votes that he needed to to keep going. howie: the media makes miss take every 4 years and money and ground game, we are so
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impressed. turns out you have to have a candidate with a winning message he is blaming the corporate media for in part for his problem. >> well, i think it's obvious to anyone that follows democratic politics that the establishment is not behind him and never has been. this goes back to 2016 and even before. he's not wrong when he talks about bias against him from his own party. howie: he's not even a democrat. >> well, from the party that's going -- >> howie: yeah. >> funding campaign shall we say. quick note on bloomberg is that the media with him was really interesting because the debate. he was the front-runner and everyone was hyping him until we heard from him. meaning mollie the debate did
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him in and he came forward from behind the curtain. howie: in part because he hardly did television interviews. i always criticize liberal commentators for saying president trump is mentally ill and sycosis and all of that, i do think it was unfortunate that some commentators that joe biden is getting there, forgetful and memory lapses and you can question his performance. let me turn to elizabeth warren because when she dropped out this week after super tuesday, tuesday,msnbc reported, allie batali kicked off debate in part by asking this question. >> we are left with two white men. >> i know, one to have hardest part of this is all those women
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and all the little girls who will have to wait four more years. howie: ali talked about it on twitter. we are left with two old-white men. what do you think about the question of sisterhood and debate about elizabeth warren, she lost, she would have won but there's so much sexism? >> i first ran 16 years ago and i didn't whole a lot of women, so you know, we've made great strides. i will say this, elizabeth warren maybe the last one to exit. there's tulsi gabbard but when kamala harris, woman of color, there wasn't outcry and it was more about the establishment coalescing around bernie sanders and when elizabeth warren gets out it's a conversation about
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sexism. i think because elizabeth warren in her campaign made gender more of an issue than colleagues who were public servants first and women second. howie: this is the millions of women who decided to vote for joe biden in those states. warren made some big states. she was running as a progressive an then she said i will be the unity candidate. i don't think being woman is part and parcel of those missteps. >> i don't think so. i would completely agree with the other comments about the other women. amy klobuchar did well in primaries and we still didn't have that kind of conversation when she decided to step out of the race. elizabeth warren really got a lot of coverage from the media i think in part because she was such a meaningful candidate. you can hear the emotion and you have shown clips where people felt connected to her. there's a particular middle-age white woman that identified with her and you're seeing in the coverage and i don't think that's actually fair because the
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candidacy she had was not that impressive. howie: she was getting positive press and started to lead the polls and hillary clinton won the nomination popular vote last time. gillian, let's say, there's sexism in the media, there's sexism in the culture. let's say gender knocked 2%, 3%, 5%, she still would have lost. amy klobuchar ran a smart campaign, never finished higher than needer in new hampshire. gillian: here is my problem with this that questions about sexism for women, particularly women in politics are always a double-edge sword. always a trap. if warren and any other woman, you know, cite sexism as being real and impacting trajectory half of the country will say they are crying victim and they are being a woos and half of the country will think they are delusional and crazy. right. that's a real thing. >> hillary clinton really did
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win the nomination 4 years ago and ran -- >> gillian: that doesn't mean that sexism are done and dusted. >> i think we cannot be lost on the fact. you can't be sexist if women are voting for sanders and biden. howie: i want to get to the sound bite of president trump. >> people don't like her. she's a very mean person and people don't like her. people don't want her. they want a person like me that's not mean. your thoughts on that and also aggressive male politicians aren't described by the press being unlikable. >> to the earlier point, dam if you're do and dam if you don't. if you're too strong, you're mean, if you're not strong enough you're not up for the challenge. >> i think that's not true.
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>> he insults people and he gets called on it. there was something embracive about elizabeth warren that you didn't have with amy klobuchar and tulsi gabbard. other female candidates that are out there. howie: bernie sanders yells all of the time. >> he gets called all of the time. >> i don't find hermine but she's abrasive. she's not -- not all women are the same and there are women who are more abrasive. howie: partisan divide on chuck schumer as chief justice slaps him down for attack neil gorsuch and brett kavanaugh. the media coverage of the coronavirus the overwhelming and starting to scare us all day strong.
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howie: chief justice john roberts scolded chuck schumer to what sounded like a threat to neil gorsuch and brett kavanaugh. some coverage on cnn and more coverage on fox. >> i want to tell you, gorsuch, i want to tell you kavanaugh, you have released a world-wind and you will pay the price. [cheers and applause] >> you won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions. howie: roberts declared that threatening statements from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate but dangerous. the uproar led to dueling statements from the leaders on the floor. >> at the very best comments were astonishing reckless and completely irresponsible. >> i shouldn't have used the words i did but in no way i was making a threat. >> it was inappropriate, it did
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sound like a physical threat. >> i'm sure mitch mcconnell is going to criticize chuck schumer for what he said. he will attack donald trump for past 3 and a half and acting federal judges. >> there have been examples of this president and the previous president criticizing members of the supreme court, criticizing rulings of the supreme court. that's something that's okay to do and looked at history where a threat of this nature had been made. i couldn't find any other examples. you saw liberals were saying this is completely beyond the pail. it's worth remembering that when you have sitting member, sitting senator doing this it's not good, we have had had instances in the recent past of reps playing softball, getting shot up by political partisan, we need to make sure that whatever
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criticism we do which is totally fine we don't incite violence. howie: the president of the united states was asked about this and here is what he had to say. >> that was a real intimidation and the best that you're saying they are trying to intimidate so the justices vote their way. that's no good either. but that was a physical -- that was -- if a republican did what schumer did, they'd be in jail right now. howie: chuck schumer says he never intended a physical threat but sure sounded bad. i don't know about being in jail if it was a republican. gillian: i don't know about that either. what was missing here every capitol hill reporter trolling the hallways up there demanding answers from democratic senators, do you or do you not support your leader's comments on this putting their feet to the fire, putting them on the record when it comes to media
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coverage that was the piece that was missing. howie: when republicans said something controversial, everybody is asked for it? gillian: yeah, i am suggesting that. to clarify reporters on capitol hill did do that, though. howie: i'm glad you mentioned that. capri, president trump criticized mexican-american judge's bias and he said after descent of sonia sotomayor and ruth bader ginsburg, not what schumer said but has gotten media coverage. >> right, there are two different types of comments because one is more, you know, charged with a potential threat than others, but i think that the issue here is if you're going to criticize those politicians that are criticizing judges, you need to be consistent in that coverage and point those things out. words do matter on both sides no matter who is saying them. i think one thing that hasn't
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been really talked about that much although it has been talked about this network is the fact that this action by chuck schumer was almost forced. he's too much of a pro to do this and he was playing a little bit to the base very much like speaker pelosi. >> well, schumer did a lot during kavanaugh confirmation and you can have better journalistic coverage of the supreme court justices themselves. there has been instances of ruth bader ginsburg and sonia sotomayor that if justices on the other side of the court have said we would have seen much more scrutiny, comments that we might lead to recusal. howie: the president's response, i'm not threatening anybody physically. gillian, we will check with you later. ahead frank luntz on how the media botched the democratic campaign. why the president's campaign is suing two media outlets, bill
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our business is you. get the lowest price guaranteed on all choice hotels when you book direct at choicehotels.com. howie: the trump camp has sued the washington post and cnn over opinion pieces on russia calling them false and defamatory days after filing a similar suit of the op-ed. the suit objects to the claim that the campaign assessed the potential risks and benefits of again seeking russia's help in 2020 and decided to leave that option on the table. the post columns by liberal writers paul's piece said what
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sort of aid russia and north korea will give to trump campaign after trump invited for assistance. a spokeswoman says to see the president's committee to go to tactics and we will defend the case. bill clinton offers first apology to monica lewinsky, sort of. the former president says he had sex with white house intern to manage an -- anxieties and take pressures off the job and adds this. >> i have no defenses, it's incoax usable what i did. i feel terrible about the fact that monica lewinsky's life and i watched her trying to get back
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life normal again. he's suggesting it was her fault. clinton attempted a more candid apology for his sorted abuse of power. now, television anchors don't really have to know algebra but working knowledge of math is kind of helpful. when michael bloomberg dropped out of the race mara gay thought they would have a little fun with numbers. >> somebody tweeted recently that actually with the money he spent he could have given every american a million dollars. >> i got it up. put it up on the screen. when i read it tonight on social media it all became clear. bloomberg spent 500 million on ads, u.s. population 327 million. howie: he would
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send a person a dollar and a half. msnbc had prepared in graphic and nobody questioned it, we would have to give that an f. ahead why did msnbc have chris matthews own resignation. first town hall and we will look at answer with frank luntz in a moment. okay. switch to progressive and you can save hundreds. you know, like the sign says.
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transitions light under control. ♪ upbeat music transitions signature gen 8, available now in 4 new style colors. transitions. howie: in fox house town hall with bret baier and martha m macallum asked president. >> i think the way we unit is with success. when they hit us i think we have to turn back. there's two ways of doing that. i wouldn't be here if i turned
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my cheek. howie: joining us frank luntz, you often deal with anger in focus groups and talk about need of civility. the president gets bashed an batted all of the time. why do you think about trump's answer? >> the candidates try very hard to come up with some powerful sound bite who can challenge each other more, who can create the most memorable line, who can make it, on fox news last tuesday neil cavuto ran a 90-second video of all candidates doing it and it's a tragedy because i will tell you it's having an impact on the voters. this is how they treat each other in focus groups. it's how they treat each other in general public and that's why we can't talk politics anymore and it is a problem. trump is correct, it is one of
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the reasons why he got elected, but it is having a negative impact on the electorate and it's a tragedy. howie: let's turn to democrats, joe biden dissed and denigrated by the press all year, what do you think of the way media covered him and in particular the way they wrote the premature obituaries? >> the first problem is the polling. it started with south carolina, continued for the next 96 hours. michael bloomberg was collapsing because he performed so badly in the debate that his advertising was not having an impact that he had and the polling didn't pick it up. similarly elizabeth warren has been collapse if r -- for the last month and if you don't poll till the end, the press is reporting old numbers and the numbers are not correct and did not pick up the shifts. howie: the fact that the polling didn't continue up until the night before the election or
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with things just moving too quickly because it was only from saturday to south carolina to tuesday on biden's winning of 10 states. >> the voters were changing their mind in the last 96 hours but nobody is showing it. one of the promises that they're talking only to the pundits and not the voters themselves. fox is about to do a town hall but the fact is most town halls are staged, scripted, but we don't hear the give and take going back and forth. i want to emphasize also the problem with the debates. how do you answer a question on china, on russia, an the pandemic in 75 seconds? it's impossible. the first 3 seconds are spent on bashing trump and that leaves them 45 second on talking about their own positions. it's foolish and it's cheap,
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encourages sound bites and once again it's contributing to the horrible culture and one of the reasons why voters are yelling at each other. howie: i believe that bernie sanders was underestimated, he would never win the nomination and the press became more sympathetic to biden. you predicted that sanders would be the likely nominee. do you think the media has treated him fairly? >> i think the media has been tough on him. let me take that back. i think the media has been tough in labeling him but they've not been tough on his policies particularly medicare for all. that was his legislation that elizabeth warren tried to defend and defended it unsuccessfully and he's not been pushed on his numbers. in the end, one of the challenges for sanders is he's in the mainstream of the democratic party but not in the mainstream of america overall.
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remember, the democrats are voting for their candidates and we forget and i'm going to get yelled at and emails from fox news. the democratic party is to the left of america overall. bernie sanders is not that far from the center of the democratic party but he's very far from the center of america. howie: let's add to your emails by asking this question, do you think that many journalists who spend a lot of time on twitter, who want somebody new and exciting, maybe more progressive underestimate to the extent that there were ranking file democrats willing to vote for the more moderate in democratic candidates meaning joe biden? >> well, i think -- i do agree with you that they underestimated him and the fact -- go back to 1972, 24 nominating conventions. no candidate has won the first 3 individual contests and not been gone onto win the nomination. so bernie sanders doesn't win and now joe biden is clearly the
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front runner. what happened to joe biden in the last 96 hours has never happened before and it's partially because the media and how it covered the south carolina victory and frankly because joe biden has been a better candidate over the last 7 days. howie: we have to give him a little bit of credit. last question, you mentioned elizabeth warren declining over time in the polls and perhaps the polls that even the press was slow to pick that up. the whole debate she lost because of sexism that we talked earlier on the program, do you think that was a factor? >> absolutely not. remember about 55 to 57% to have democratic caucus electorate are women, so women aren't voting for her by definition. how can it be sexism? the idea of blaming sexism when this is just democrats it's
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absurd. howie: appreciate you coming sunday. coming up msnbc forces out chris matthews. executives got fed up with hardball host can i help you? yes, please. thank you. you're welcome. ♪ [indistinct conversation] can i help you? yes! we're stuck. the career skills that really matter- like teamwork, responsibility, and serving others... hey... can i help you? are the ones you learn here. welcome to mcdonald's. can i help you?
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howie: it was a stunning television moment, long-time
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liberal host chris matthews announced retirement tat top of hardball, was forced out by msnbc executives and included apology for women. >> after conversation with msnbc tonight will be my last hardball. complements on a woman's appearance was never okay. certainly not today for making such comments in the past, i'm sorry. >> that was a lot to take in just now, i'm sure and i'm sure you're still absorbing that and i am too. howie: joining us now from new york kat timpf. my sources say they got tired of
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blunders and retirement at age 74 was not really his choice. what's your take on the decision in. >> i completely agree with that. people are saying that he was fired because of the gq article that came out of comments. i don't think he was fired because of that. i think he was fired because msnbc we wanted to fire him for many reasons and they saw this as an opportunity to do that and say, oh, hey, we will make it a me too thing but honestly it's in the a me too thing and we need to have more nuance when we talk about these issues. the comments were creepy, gross, but me too was always more about creepy comments, power dynamics, women who were afraid to go to work, lose their job if they spoke up. she was a guest on the show and most women i know have been through things that are more serious than that. i've been through things that are more serious than that and it's almost little offensive to in the split the hairs and make that -- that nuance clear.
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howie: let me provide more detail. laura basset wrote that when she was a guest 3 years ago, matthews would say things like keep putting makeup on her, i will fall in love with her. he has a history on the air, off the air, you're gorgeous, you're beautiful. he has gotten in trouble for that before. no one has accused him of laying a finger on the women or trying to date them. it's all running his mouth. did the metoo movement catch up with him for past offenses? >> see i think those comments gross, chris, yuck, no woman wants to hear from you, gross. as a woman myself i know i can handle creepy comments without someone's career being destroyed over it. i think there should be nuance. you should be able to say this is gross but not something worth being fired over. me too again is power dynamics, the workplace, women who are
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afraid to go to work because they are dealing with things where there's a man who has a position and power over them who is being abusive. howie: okay. >> and this is not that. howie: let's put up the tweet from laura bassett, 15 minutes later, all worth it if he will never have the platform to demean and objectify us again. she was trying to get him fired. what did you make, kat, of the way that msnbc didn't let him finish the show, he comes on for 2 minutes and leaves the set or at least let him finish the week rather than creating awkward spectacle and embarrassing where he resigns and leaves? >> i thought it was wrong but i think that they had been wanting to do this because of some of the comments that you brought up earlier such debacle with bernie sanders, mixing up the senators, all those sorts of things and they just wanted a reason to fire him and be able to say, oh, we did this because we are good
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people and not just we don't want this guy in the air, he's not woken up which is the reasoning. howie: i've known chris matthews since he was speech writer for jimmy carter. he says anything that comes into his head without any filter. you never knew what he had -- he was going to say. he told me i aim for the chalk line as in tennis and i like when people have the little gasp and say i can't believe he said. the problem is there turns out to be a lot of i can't believe he says that. >> again, i think things he said were gross, not okay to talk to woman that way but there needs to be some nuance in the way we discuss issues. most women are strong enough to
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take comments like that. howie: kat tempf, thank you very much. >> thank you. howie: the plug was pulled excuse me after dylan called the move upsetting and her brother ronan farrell cut ties accusing publisher from hiding from him and walkout, difficult decision and i'm not defending the movie director, i don't know what happened 3 decades ago except that he was never charged. woody allen who recently lost a movie deal with amazon is radioactive. still to come corona virus coverage has for become a constant present in our lives,
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howie: the media nonstop coverage of coronavirus. >> i think the 3.4% is really false number. now, this is just my hunch. i would say the number is way under 1%. >> we need truth, we need facts and we need testing and donald trump should take the next month in golf while someone else handles it. >> the president said he had it under control and he doesn't. apparently there's no cure for the president's viral lack of
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veracity. howie: we are back with gillian turner, more criticism after the president was at center of disease control. he doesn't want them to come on shore, that's his preference. quote, i like the numbers being where they are, i don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault. what do you make of the criticism of the president? gillian: well, to expect president trump to not inject politics in his personal opinion and views on anything at this point i think would be silly and it means that journalists are being unprepared if you think he's not going the tell you what he's really thinking and feeling even if it goes against some of public health officials best advise. no surprise. howie: politico has a headline, trump mess mismanagement helps
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fueling corona crisis. more fake news and misinformation particularly nbc, covers coronavirus horribly. gillian: some of the coverage is already saying that president trump and his administration have failed the american people. they have failed to contain this virus. they have made what is a public health crisis worse. it's a little early for that kind of criticism at this point. i mean, he's right to push back when he says, you know, people are basically already -- people in the media are accusing me of being responsible for people dying and that's just not the case yet. >> right, at the same time it seems like a lot of the commentators they were ready to go. it was going to be his fault and any time there was daylight between him and health officials they were going to pounce on it. gillian: well, where the media has been justified is on the
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lack of testing kits that have been made available statewide, community wide in the united states. is that president trump's direct personal fault? howie: right. >> i don't think so. i don't know. exactly, but that is -- if the media can get public officials to get test out there's now, that's public good. howie: every morning i look at "the new york times", first 5 stories is about coronavirus. it's constantly covered on cable with the thousand point drops in the dow. a lot of people say they are word. of course, it's a huge concerning international story but is the sheer volume of coverage contributing to public fear? gillian: it might be but i also don't know that that's wrong or that that's not a good thing in the sense that the news today if we are honest is largely a
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reflection of what the various networks feel their viewers want to hear about, what they care about, what they are prioritizing. that's why we cover politics so much. we know the american people by and large want to follow developments. same thing with a public health crisis like this one. people want to know. the media feel, you know, compelled to provide them constant updates. howie: right, it is very important, to some extent we are giving public and that's why stories are picked on and on top of home pages. when you have -- i worry about the tone and perspective. when you have a handful of cases being discovered in new york, that doesn't mean they'll be an epidemic in new york city or that those people will face fatal consequences. people get this and -- >> gillian: if you look at epidemiologist and they talk about the rate of spread and the way things work, they have been very alarmed. i'm not an infectious disease
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expert and i can't tell you the details but world health organization first became very concerned in december when they heard about this cluster in wuhan, china when it was perfectly contained and not many very cases. something about the way the virus was replicating and spreading really, really terrified them and so there is reason here for people to take these precautions and do all of these things. howie: are you are a exactly right. i don't know that that should be big national news. politicians react, they do news conferences. it's difficult. gillian turner, thank you very much for doing double duty today. that's it for today. you can read daily comments there. let's continue the conversation on twitter on howard kurtz. check out my podcast, we always talk about coronavirus. you can subscribe at apple
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itunes or google play. president trump replacing chief of staff mick mulvaney. we will see you next sunday with the latest buzz
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arthel: new travel precautions and protocols announced as the number of coronavirus cases keeps rising in the united states u. the u.s. death toll now at least 19 with over 400 people confirmed to have the virus in at least 25 states. hello, everyone, welcome to america's news headquarters i'm arthel neville. eric: hello, thank you for joining us on this sunday, i'm eric sean. several airlines have suspended travel to china, that's where the coronavirus outbreak began in december that after american airlines and delta, well, they stopped fly to go milan, italy where there have been cases. americ