howard: this is media buzz. i'm howard kurtz. we begin with a story the media have pounced on for the last 36 hours, president trump commuting the sentence of his long-time pal and informal advisor, roger stone who was to be begin serving a prison term of 40 months next week for lying in the russia probe. >> roger stone was treated horribly. roger stone was treated very unfairly. roger stone was brought into this witch hunt, this whole political witch hunt in the mueller scam. >> this is the most corrupt and

cronyistic act in perhaps all of recent history. >> this president continues to use the levers of power and the justice department to protect himself and his cronies, punish the people who speak out or try to rein him in. >> i think the president felt as though this was not a fair trial in the district of columbia. frankly, good luck if you're a friend of donald trump trying to get a fair trial there. howard: joining us now to analyze the coverage, ben domenech, founder and publisher of the federalist, gillian turner and clarence page, columnist for the chicago tribune. the media are up in arms over a president keeping out of prison a long-time advisor and self-described dirt eave trick . >> whatever you think of roger stone, you don't have to like

him, someone who is a true dirty trickster, i think in this case there's a strong arrestingment targument to bemade for over-pr. he is an elderly 1reud wh individuaindividual whowas aboun the time of coronavirus. these are times where we see leniency. i think the president would be focused on the kind of pardons and commutations that could have an impact o on society at large. he's used the power far less than prior presidents. in this case, i wish i could have seen this kind of uproar of the pardoning of oscar lopez rivera who he helped to get out the punishment. the president was always going to stand by someone who stood by him through thick and thin. howard: the media's broader

argument is the president says he's a law and order president of the united states, but when it comes to his people, mike flynn, in this case, roger stone, it's often dirty cops, unfair prosecution. i doubt most of the public is as concerned as the pundits about a fringe figure like stone. >> i don't think most of the people is as concerned about stone as the president is. stonies a long-time friend. the difference between this case and obama's pardon of rivera is that stonies connected for a long time with this president and this president often personalizes the politics of his office. this is another case of it. that's why i'm sure he'll get on to more significant pardons for the rest of us. but -- later o but righ on. but right now that's where a big part of the attention, as well as even robert mueller and mitt

romney, other republicans have expressed some disdane over this particular move. howard: the new york time headlines says trump goes where nixon did not during watergate. the president does argue as ben alluded to that stone who is 67 who did have a nixon tattoo on his back at one point could face medical risk in jail and in fairness, the president wiped out the sentence but he didn't pardon him which leaves the legal finding of guilt. >> yeah, well that op ed you referenced about this being, quote, worse than watergate referred to the fact that republican lawmakers in particular were standing behind the president's decision even though they allegedly reportedly know that it's corrupt according to the wording in the piece and during watergate, republicans broke from nixon. that's the difference here. on roger stone particularly, i think as much as journalists

profess to loathe him an, he's really their ultimate fantasy. the fact that he'll stay out of prison for four years, it's like their wildest dream come true. he's going to continue talking to them. he's in constant contact with journalists. he's probably on text chains with a journalist from every media outlet in america. if he was in prison it would be harder to keep the line of communication open. for a lot of journalists, this is actually a boone to them, the fact that he's going to stay out of pr prison. howard: it was a new york times news story i was quoting. michael cohen turned on trump, was just sent back to prison after a covid-related home release after refusing to sign an agreement that he wouldn't talk to journalists or publish a book he's working on and

journalists are saying that's an infringement on his rights because even if he was in jail he would be allowed to publish a book or talk to journalists. >> this case, cohen was someone who wanted to have the kind of relationship with the media that gillian attributes to roger stone. to gillian's point, he just showed up on ryan long's comedy pod of cast doing an extensive hour-long interview. cohen is someone who mishandled that situation. i think he should have gone into that with an attitude towards negotiation as opposed to refusing the deal the way it was laid out. certainly there's no lack of people who want to strike while the ironies hot, try to get books out, try to have some relevance as it relates to the election. i think that's what michael cohen was attempting to do. howard: clarence, briefly, because i want to move on some other subjects. the extraordinarily harsh and personal nature of the media criticism of the president in

recent months in the covid era shall we say, i wonder whether you think in light of the polling and everything that this is because a lot of pundits have concluded that donald trump may lose this election and so it's okay to pile on. >> well, the media have a lot of interesting, extraordinary stuff to cover with this president, every day. he's makes a point of making news, much of it is news he doesn't want to make. but the fact is, his polling is down. it's down across the board. he has made some really self-destructive moves i would say in regards to covid, the whole mask issue, whether or not to invite your supporters out to rallies in hot zones like tulsa. you know, this kind of situation, the president does have a need to have bad press, just regular press covering his moves enough. howard: sounds like you might miss him if he's not around.

the washington post is quoting unnamed aids and 5d vicar that president trump is -- advisors that president trump is doing a woe is me, that he's been unfairly victimized by the shutdowns and the rallies, is this just news or private venting by the president? >> well, it's news in the sense that there's new sources apparently coming forward to report this stuff but it's not surprising to anybody. the president vents about reporters by name on twitter every single day, in press conferences. i will also say at this point it's surprising to me that he continues to do it because it's widely acknowledged in the media, i can only speak for my colleagues and i, but every time the president does that, he elevates journalists, he gives them more exposure, he gives them in a sense more power. because the second he gets somebody in particular in his crosshairs, everybody pays attention to them, everybody

wants to know who they are, what they think. they want to know who their sources are. so it's surprising to me that aides haven't really prevailed upon him to stop doing this and singling people out who he doesn't like by name. because it really only helps them. howard: i was just making the point that these were private conversations that were leaked. all right. we're short on time. i want to get a quick answer from ben and clarence. new tweet by the president, too many universities and school systems are about radical left indoctrination, not education, telling the treasury department to re-examine tax exempt status. ben, you might agree about the indictment of the schools. a lot of journalists see this as a culture war move to aid his re-election. >> i do think it's a culture war move. i think the president recognizes he's in a culture war. he said that this week to bill wegman. he's right to identify the universities as being the places that have produced the kind of people who are willing to go

out, screaming in the faces of cops and pulling down statues. i think this is something that's not necessarily the best way to go about attacking those institutions or correcting their ways in lots of different respects. tax exemptions versus accreditation or something like that. howard: clarence, what if a biden administration decided to go after the tax status of liberty university or conservative educational institutions? >> howard, this is a manufactured story. the president hasn't said he's going after -- remember, he signed an executive order last year in regard to free speech on campus. his position is very clear. why is he rattling his sword again this time? it's politics. he's playing the culture war. howard: all right. i did want to get to the president telling sean hannity that he took a cognitive test at walter reed and he said that the doctors were very surprised, he said that's an unbelievable thing, really, does anybody do

what you just did. it kind of got drowned out in the news and we are out of time. when we come back, the press versus the president in a culture war that includes nascar and confederate flags. and that protects our customers 24/7. sorry i'm late, everybody, and apologies for my appearance. you look fine. we were just talking about -- yeah, right. i look like a wanted poster. i didn't have time to get my beard routine in this morning, so... what beard routine? ah. well, the key is maple nectar. gives it that sheen. is there something wrong with my screen? -mnh-mnh. -jamie, what are talking about? you're right, alan. we should be talking about bundling home and auto with progressive, not this luscious mane of mine. [ laughs ] jamie, do you know what a beard is? it turns out i have tardive dyskinesia, a condition that may be related to important medications i take for my bipolar disorder. tardive dyskinesia can affect different parts of the body.

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howard: president trump and the media are fighting an increasingly nasty culture war which flared up when he tweeted about how bubba wallace should apologize and that the flag decision has caused the lowest ratings ever. the flag decision is the league's new ban on confederate flags at the event and totally dominated kaley mcenany's press conference. >> does he think it was a

mistake for nascar to ban the flag. >> the president said he wasn't making a judgment on one way or another. you're focusing on one word on the bottom of the tweet. >> why would the president not praise nascar for removing the confederate flag? >> what does the president see as positive for uniting about the confederate flag? howard: gillian turner, i've rarely seen a press secretary get hammered on one subject the way kayleigh mcenany did, i think it's because she kept insisting the president had no position on the confederate flag when the tweet would certainly indicate that he was critical of nascar. >> he clearly does have a position on the confederate flag. and this is not a situation where the press bombarded the press secretary at the briefing because they wanted to. they got dragged into this because president trump keeps talking about it and keeps tweeting about it. once he does that, it is their

responsibility to bring it up with the press secretary. so let's get the facts straight about the order of these things. this is an unforced error for president trump. it's a perfect opportunity for him to stay out of the fray, not make unforced errors here. he didn't have to wade into these waters, getting embroiled in not only the argument about the confederate flag, but the ongoing arrestingment about race, race in starts -- argument about race, race in starts. kaley wouldn't have been put in that position at the briefing. howard: right. and ben, even some on-air conservatives agreed with the mead ya verdict, that it mead no senses personally after the july 4tfourth speeches to suddenly weigh in on nascar and confederate flags. >> i have to say, i think we should all feel good about the bubba wallace story since it turned out this was not something that clearly intensioner nailly done. it's -- intentionally done.

like so many other stories that look like racial incidents at first. there was an explanation for this along the same lines as we've seen in other instances such as those ropes hung from a tree out in california. so i think that's actually a good thing that we should take away from it. i think the president always tries to fire away at what he view as political correctness and the problems related to it. i want to circle back to something that gillian said which i think is incorrect. the president gave a speech at mount rushmore and the next day the washington post ran a front page article that lied, that said right off the bat that he had given a speech defending confederates and that's something they didn't correct, they didn't roll back. i think the president is actually engaged in the media on this because the media continues to try to make this about confederate take sta statues an. they're trying to turn this into

something which it isn't. i think the president's very well aware of that. howard: there was a lot of red meat for conservatives in the weekend holiday speeches. many people on the right say bubba wallace has nothing to apologize for, although it turned out the noose incident was not a hate crime. kayleigh mcenany said why have i not gotten a single question on the weekend surge in murders in new york and chicago including children. you work for a chicago newspaper. isn't that a fair point? >> i think it's not a fair point. that's not the real story the president would be involved with. the president had a burr under his saddle for chicago crime for a long time. what happened to the expert on chicago crime who was going to solve the whole problem in a week?

that's what president trump promised me and other members of the editorial board, repeated it on the campaign trial and has yet to come up with the expert on chicago crime. he loves to grandstand about chicago crime. bubba wallace story is a good news story. president trump has lost the narrative here, going back to how he began his campaign back in mobile, alabama, four years ago. and this is his base. and nascar, the mostly white male and southern oriented constituency of nascar if you will, that's trump's base, feels like he owns it. how dare somebody tell me friends they can't have that flag flying. howard: i was making the point, the surge in violence in a lot of big cities doesn't get a lot of coverage, maybe because it's considered something that's ongoing for years. gillian, final question --

>> [ indiscernible ]. chicago violence gets a lot of coverage. howard: i was talking about nationwide media coverage. when the president tweets about not just nascar, but is against the washington redskins or the cleveland indians changing their name, a lot of people say that's a distraction from covid and the economy and all of that. but i think many in the media don't really understand how these issues resonate with a good chunk of the country out there. quick thought. >> and they do resonate with a good chunk of the country. that doesn't mean these are waters for the president, not just president trump but any president to wade into. it's private sector business. i don't think that there is really a place for any american president to weigh in on what he thinks about the name change of a sports team. same like nascar. perfect opportunity for president trump to stay out of the fray, to stay above the chaos. missed opportunity. howard: right. well, this president weighs in on just about everything.

gillian, we'll see you a little later. ben domenech, clarence page, thanks for joining us. coming up, why li liberals are celebrating the high court rulings on donald trump's tax returns without really getting much at all. cranky-pated: a bad mood related to a sluggish gut. miralax is different. it works naturally with the water in your body to unblock your gut. free your gut, and your mood will follow.

howard: liberal commentators are rejoicing after a pair of rulings over of president trump's tax returns and the president vented his opinion on twitter. it doesn't require him to turn anything over right now. cyrus vance has a right to go after president trump's financial records and house democrats potentially have the right to subpoena his returns while kicking both cases back to the lower courts. >> not only will i tell you during the campaign i could stand on fifth avenue and shoot someone and it wouldn't hurt me at all, he had a lawyer go into court and say that on his behalf

too. the media was giddy about the ruling on the tax returns. but they were wrong. one of the rulings destroyed congress' gross unconstitutional overstep, trying to obtain trump's tax returns. howard: sorry for thanking you guys prematurely. fascinating to watch the media praising the supreme court from declaring independence from president trump and saying he doesn't have total immunity against subpoenas. even those are procedural rulings that kick this well past the election and beyond. >> as a political matter, it's a win for president trump. it means they're not going to be able to pour over his tax returns in the context of the election year. he has enough challenge as it is when it comes to the election. in terms of the nuance, this is another example where the rush to report about supreme court rulings ends up missing a lot of what's going on there procedurally. i think in this instance, a lot of people saw this as -- that were on the left, saw it as a

win for them and came to realize that at least in the short political measure it's not. howard: yeah, in political terms i think you're right. because it freezes the action. clarence, the president was not pleased as i mentioned, tweeting this is all political prosecution. i won the mueller witch hunt. courts in the past have given broad deference, but not me and goes into his accusations that obama and biden spied on him. your thoughts. >> there's the self-prosecution syndrome of president trump. everything is about him and everything is some effort to get after him. look, i'm not so partisan that i feel that this is a partisan victory for the right or for the left. i'm happy that it's a victory you for the -- victory for the constitution, for congress and the other branches. not as a partisan victory or loss, this won't have much

effect before the election. that's not the purpose of the supreme court. they're supposed to protect the constitution. i'm glad somebody is. howard: it's also striking that trump's appointees joined the liberal ring in reaching the position about immunity even though it's theoretical for the moment. the media, the disappointment is not so much the legal principles but it's been a great hunger since the 2016 cam a pai campaid out if there's anything damaging in the president's tax returns. this time, i'll wish you a great sunday. thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. howard: espn has suspended basketball reporter adrian wodrinowski without pay for sending an e-mail to josh holly after he criticized the nba's relationship with china, saying f-you. he apologized for being disrespectful and making a

regretable mistake. fox news has pointed company with a writer for tucker carlson in the wake of serious disclosures. fox news' ceo and executive editor minced no words about what happened. they said they learned that blake neff, a writer on tucker carlson tonight, made horrendous and deeply offensive racist, sexist and homophobic comments under a pseudonyn. fox news media strongly condemns the racist and home mo home of c behavior. it was never divulged until friday at which point we swifted accepted the resignation. actions such as his cannot and will not be tolerated at any time in any part of our workforce. the disclosures were reported by cnn. neff posted anonymously over

five years is ugly stuff such as racist jokes including the "n" word, de denigrating the mormon religion. they will address the situation on monday night's show. next on media buzz, the media uproar over president trump vowing to pressure the governors into reopening the schools this fall with parents caught in the middle.

howard: president trump told greta van sustran the other day that we're in a good place with the coronavirus, such comments sparking a media uproar as the coronavirus surge reached over 66,000 cases on friday alone. the media spotlight shifted to whether and how the nation's schools can reopen in september. the president criticizing the cdc guidelines which are being

continutinkered with. >> i think it's going to be good for them politically so they keep the schools closed. no way. we're very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools. >> it is ghoulish for donald trump to inject his broken, corrupt, incompetent political approach to the global pandemic into what is a life and death, painful, lose-lose decision for most parents. >> the president is out there demanding that the schools open and for the sake of the economy, for the sake of the divorce rate, for the sake of sanity among parents, they need to open. and for the sake of the children not starving. howard: joining us now to analyze the coverage, gayle trotter, and mara liasson,

political reporter and fox news contributor. the media have slammed the president. doesn't it contradict the conservative idea of federalism, that the president doesn't have absolute power and that local officials control such things as local schools. >> i'm glad you brought thunderstorm watch, how -- brought that up, howie. the attorney general said the same thing that it's surprising that governors are going against the constitutions and using their emergency powers to do so many things that a limited government conservative would not be in favor of. and we're seeing the media criticizing president trump for encouraging americans to go back to work or children to go back to school and we've seen organizations like the american academy of pediatricians urging children to go physically present in schools in the fall and yet the media are aligned with the biden campaign and the

talking points of the teachers union who want to keep the schools closed this fall and that goes against what a lot of american parents want, to have the schools reopened safely and with help as a primarily -- with health as a primary concern. howard: i think parents are divided. journalists are also parents. i would love to have my kids back in school. the media tends to focus on whether it's safe, not just for the kids but for teachers and staff. they are largely casting this as the president trying to score a political victory by forces the schools to open. the president says he thinks it's the democrats who will benefit if the buildings remain closed. >> the media isn't one monolithic thing. parents desperate at this, me included, want their kids back in school and we desperately want our kids safely back in school but the media's also of pointed out correctly that 90% of school funding comes from local governments and states.

the president only i think has control of about 10 of 10% of i. he doesn't have a lot of leverage. he does have a bully pulpit. he also urged states to open up economies which people wanted and in a lot of places that didn't work out so well. so it's a cautionary tale for every school district that is struggling with where they're going to find the money to do the extra sanitation, the plexiglass, the masks, the extra classrooms that you have to spread kids out, i mean, this is a huge problem and instead of trading blame about who wants to keep schools shut, who wants to keep them open, maybe the federal government and the states could work together on a plan for how to open schools safely. howard: well, speaking of working together, the president and vice president have been adt odds with the cdc over the guidelines that could help make the decisions. robert redfield was on good morning america. let's take a look. >> should the doctors and scientists with the cdc be taking that kind of political direction from the president? >> i think it's important,

george, to realize -- you used the word guidelines. that's what the cdc has done, they provide guidance. they're not requirements. howard: so gayle, the cdc is now getting a lot of media criticism for being under -- perhaps bending to political pressure from the white house. >> expert opinions are very important but experts in any field are not accountable to the american people. we don't have a government of the experts, by the experts, and for the experts. instead, we have democratic accountability and that's why we choose leaders to make these hard decisions for us. and if you look at the track record of the experts, they're continually changing their advice. in march we saw dr. fauci, the w.h.o., the u.s. surgeon general, the cdc, argue against masks. when new information arose, they changed their recommendations. so it's not a monolithic thing. but that is why we have democratic accountability for

leaders. howard: right. speaking of anthony fauci, mara, he hasn't spoken to the president in over a month. he has had to cancel tv interviews and the president told sean hannity dr. fauci is a nice man but made a lot of mistakes. here's what anthony fauci told the financial times if we can put it up. i have a reputation as you probably figured out of speaking the truth at all times and not sugar coating things. that may be one of the reasons why i haven't been on television very much lately. so you have this partisan debate over whether the president is sidelining people like fauci. >> well, there's no doubt that the white house has chosen not to put fauci on television as much as they did in the beginning when he was kind of a good housekeeping seal of approval for the president. he was the scientists who was going to tell everybody what to do and how to stay safe, et cetera. as the president has wanted to open up faster than maybe dr. fauci thinks that we should open, he's been pushed to the side a bit. but dr. fauci has also come to

the president's rescue a couple times, trying to explain why the president said 99% of the cases are harmless, he said maybe he misinterpreted data about a 1% mortality rate. but there's no doubt that dr. fauci is less useful to the white house right now. howard: all right. i need a brief answer from each of you. first you, gayle, you have six children, i know you would like to see them back in school. many schools including new york city and elsewhere are planning to have a couple days on, a couple days off, a couple weeks on, couple weeks off, in order to keep crowding down in the classrooms. very little press attention on how that would pressure on working parents, what to do when the kids are home, doing the online learning thing. >> that's right. americans want their kids back in school, they want to get back to work and they want it to be done safely and responsibly and the cdc released extensive guidelines on how to do that. there's a lot of different information about young children and the distances you need so that is something that should

not be political. it should be somewhere where we all join together in the american spirit of back to work and stick to it-iveness. howard: the president slammed harvard university which plans to go all online for the next academic year, saying they should be ashamed of themselves. other university systems are planning that. are the media buying into that criticism? >> i don't know. look, college is a different situation. harvard is having people come back to campus and go to school online. so it's not like they're keeping everybody out of school. each school has to make these decisions for themselves. this is a tough, mri kateed -- ancomplicated problem. we have to figure out how to open up safely. howard: great to see you this sunday. after the break, why the media are going hay wire over the book by president trump's niece and is that fair? and later, are kanye's white house ambitions fake news? whether it's bribes to roll over.

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howard: i had hoped to avoid talking about this new book about mary trump, leaked copies are drawing coverage in the new york times, washington post and other cable news channels. >> perhaps one of the reasons the family fought so hard to keep the book under wraps has to do with the fear that mary trump is the best expert you can get on donald trump, his own

relative, could tear down the false image that trump created. >> the family member in question is the president of the united states. a family portrait of him and how he became who he is and who he has long been, it can send a chill down your spine. >> we have instant credibility with anybody, especially those ott under oath or writing fiction, as long as they're out there to get the president. i think reporters ought to focus on getting the store ribs not getting the -- story, not getting the president. howard: joining us now is kat timpf. now, mary trump has been in litigation after getting cut out of the will, and hasn't had much contact with the president for many years. why is the book getting such a huge media ride. >> this happens when these books come out. this is the first one by a relative. there's a whole genre of books,

the behind the scenes, salacious type of thing. it's the same thing every time, where trump's detractors love to sink their teeth into it and say look at this, this guy's crazy. i don't think it changes the level of support among his supporters whatsoever. i think people brush it off entirely, don't even consider what's in it. so i don't understand, these keep getting written. it's almost like a tmz-esque genre more than anything else. howard: the president tried to stop publication of this which is too much and never enough. mary trump writes that donald trump paid a guy named joe shapiro to take the sat for him. that helped him get into the university of pennsylvania. the washington post tracked down the sister of shapiro who is now deceased and see said this can't be true because joe didn't meet donald until they were both students at pen. so that -- at penn. so that fell apart. >> when you read something like this, you have to take it with a

grain of salt. sure, some of it's probably true, looks like some of it isn't. again, the way that it's covered is quite interesting. a lot is over-blown in the way it's been covered. for example, i saw a piece in the la times and the headline was that horror clouds every page. okay. like really, like the part about how when he was a kid he hid his brother's trucks. like not a nice thing to do but i wouldn't call it horror. right? howard: it's like one of the blurbs from a movie. mary trump is a clinical psychologist with phd. she says he's a narcissist and blames it on the stern treatment of his father, fred senior. i question whether her personal animous undercuts the book. i believe if a relative of barack obama had published a book trashing the 44th president, there would be great debate in the media, should we

cover this. there's no hesitation here to cover all of the dirty family lawn. >> i absolutely. it's so interesting because you do have to acknowledge that obviously they don't get along. it's a spat over money, essentially, at the end of the day, that they haven't really spoken or anything like that. you do have to keep in mind who the narrater of this is. there's people who know me who don't like me and i wouldn't want -- wouldn't like to read their books. they probably have horrible things to say. have you to keep that in mind. it's salacious, it's fun for people to read and kind of tease the president if they don't like him but i truly don't think anyone else really actually cares or i don't see how you could. howard: right. a lot of copies have been printed. before we go, yesterday president trump visited walter reed and for the first time in front of the cameras he was seen wearing a mask, actually a black mask with the president's seal. do you think that he -- he said that, well, it's a hospital, it's appropriate. do you think he wanted to finally put an end to all the

media criticism, why aren't you wearing a mask? >> yeah, i think he certainly did. he obviously -- i think that it's bad that it has become a political thing. if you're a mask wearing person you're liberal and if not you're conservative. it shouldn't have anything to do with i i was glad to see him wearing the mask and especially if you're in a situation like a hospital. also, he's constantly getting tested and that sort of stuff too. so someone like me, i'm not getting tested for covid every day. howard: i do think it sets a good example. kat timpf, good to see you as always. still to come, the kind of bogus story that's generating a whole lot of buzz. kanye claims he's running for president. (burke) at farmers, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. like how nice it is to save on your auto policy. but it's even nicer knowing that if this happens... ...or this happens... ...or this.... ...or this...

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howard: i'm not really buying this story but it's just generating plenty of buzz. kanye west says he's running for president. you'll recall that kanye praised president trump in a couple years back in a rambling oval office visit. >> they tried to scare me to not wear this hat. my own of friends. this hat, it gives me power in a way. howard: the rapper tells forbes magazine i'm taking the red hat off, that he had the coronavirus, that he's never voted in his life and he's okay drawing black support from joe biden because to say that the black vote is democratic is a form of racism and white supremacy. we're back with gillian turner. this seems bogus to me. kanye hasn't made a move to get on a single state ballot. he's had mental health issues in the past. why so much coverage for kanye. >> any journalist in america who tells you they know whether he's serious or not is lying.

because his own wife, kim kardashian, reportedly doesn't know whether he's serious. her friends and family members have been telling people magazine, i was just reading about this, that it's unclear to her whether he's serious at all or whether he's completely unserious. so she doesn't know. we definitely don't know. howard: all right. so first he's got to win the kardashian primary. now, on a more serious note, ghislaine maxwell was tracked down and arrested, charged with helping the monstrous sexual predator jeffrey epstein with at least three girls who were abused by the late predator. she's on an intensified suicide watch, wearing paper clothes after epstein's jail house -- it seems there's an x factor here that is driving the coverage into th the strasto fear. >>.daniel:sphere.

>> it's like one story that everybody agrees on, there's no partisan split that republicans think one thing and democrats think another. everybody is in perfect agreement on the fact that he was a monster. most people think it's a good thing that he's no longer walking freely on the face of the earth, being a predator. so it's interesting that the ghislaine maxwell story line is following the same trend here. mostly bipartisan support, she's a bad lady. howard: well, speaking of bipartisanship, epstein was friends with a lot of people in both parties, the elites. she's sort of this mystery woman, of course the suicide and the conspiracy theories about epstein also factor in. finally, the central park dog walker, amy cooper, was charged this week with filing a false police noter the incident in new york where she lied about an african-american man, a bird watcher who she said he was threatening her. why are the media still milking

this story? >> because it picks up on the racial -- the struggle for racial justice that's going on right now. but i like that the media is so woke that even her dog is now going to get justice. people jumped all over the fact that she was choking him inadvertently while she was yelling at this guy. now you the dog's been taken aware from her, getting put up for adoption. howard: i didn't have th canine angle. i like the fact that the bird watcher said you know what, she lost her job, i'm not going to pile on. he's not cooperating with the prosecution. good to see you. have a good sunday. >> thank you. you too. howard: that's it for this edition of media buzz. i'm howard kurtz. you can read my daily columns. we can continue the conversation on twitter at howard kurtz. check out my pod cast, media buzz meter, we deal with the buzziest stories every day, you can subscribe on apple itunes, your amazon device or

foxnewspodcast.com. lot to cover every week with the covid, the campaign, the economy, now schools. we try to stay on top of the media coverage for you. we'll see you here next sunday, 11:00 eastern with the latest buzz.

leland: there are mounting concerns about the spread of coronavirus here in our country, as several states are now struggling to try get their spike in cases under control. you know, a record 15,300 cases were reported in florida yesterday alone. that after eight other states set record one-day highs on friday. that sparking some pullbacks on some reopenings and predictions that, yep, some lockdowns could potentially return. hello on this sunday, welcome to america's news headquarters. i'm eric shawn. hi, molly. molly: hello, eric. great to be with you. i'm molly line in for arthel neville. despite the rising coronavirus numbers, education sec