howie: this is media buzz. i'm howard kurtz. happy new year as we begin our first edition of 2021. a bigger covid relief bill is officially dead today. president trump was pounded by the press when he rejected the original bill, then signed the legislation without a single change meaning the stimulus checks are just 600 bucks, not the $2,000 that trump belatedly demanded. >> donald trump wasn't actually trying to do the job of president when he said he wanted to have the $2,000 payments. he was just trying to get attention. >> before the $2,000 -- the

american people deserve it. the fact of the matter is, we could have got this a long time ago if democrats didn't play politics and wait until after the election. >> this president gained nothing with all these antics. nothing. just needlessly creating chaos because he could. >> some people who haven't worked for the last five years all of them are going to get a $2,000 check that doesn't make sense and so i think you'll see this divide in the republican party. howie: a strange thing happened as the president kept insisting on bigger stimulus checks, the house approved the $2,000 checks which democrats wanted all along and the pressure shifted to mitch mcconnell. he conjured up a bill with a commission to investigate trump allegations of election fraud. >> when you put the poison pill in their $2,000 survival check that the democrats support, he's killing it. any senator who votes for

mcconnell's poison pill is voting to kill the $2,000 payment. >> the stories and the words that say hey, mitch mcconnell is trying to block this, i think it's inaccurate. you can actually be able to tackle some of the things that republicans have been insisting upon and that is the election integrity and going back and doing an investigation of that. howie: joining us now to analyze the coverage in new york, kat timpf of the greg gutfeld show and fox nation, gillian turner, a fox news core upon dent and -- correspondent and anchor in washington and richard fowler. kat, the pundits are almost unanimous that president trump waited, shouldn't have waited until both houses passed the bill to criticize it for too small stimulus checks. i think what the press misses is he changed the political debate and put pressure on the senate. your thoughts. >> yes, he certainly did and of course the media will take most stories and have them sort of centered through this lens of

donald trump, particularly if it can be negative, right. very little credit for getting the vaccine out quickly, now that there's distribution issues it's all over the place. i think that one issue was making all of the coverage so trump-centric, is you can miss other of things like congress, for example, quite ridiculous. the one they did vote on had the $600 checks in it. none of them read that. they got that six hours before they voted on it. to me, that seems a little insane. people aren't really talking about that because it's all about trump's golfing, what trump said, you've done this, you've done that, and aim to criticize him. howie: only 5,000 page bill. jillian, reporters and pundits say that mitch mcconnell by combining the $2,000 stimulus checks with the president's demand for an election fraud investigation commission, not to mention ending legal immunity for social media giants, that effectively killed the bill which is what mcconnell wanted.

>> he did. that's exactly what mitch mcconnell did. he slow-rolled it and killed it by patching together issues that have nothing to do with each other, making a weird frankenstein type bill. i want to push back on something that a couple anchors said, which is that president trump got nothing out of this. he got nothing except credit for millions of americans for wanting to get more money directly into their wallets. at the end of the day, mitch mcconnell had to swallow the poison pill. president trump made him own the fact that millions of americans are going to get $1,400 less than he would like them to do. president trump may consider that a very big political victory at this moment. howie: that's a good point. richard, conservative comet day commentators said democrats were playing politics by refusing to have this bill before telex because they didn't want to give donald trump credit during the campaign. >> i don't know if i agree with

that but i do agree with jillian. let's be very clear and think about how we got here. in may, the democrats passed the heroes act. was it a perfect bill in the eyes of republicans? it wasn't. the heroes act had a lot of things in it that would have benefited the american people. mitch mcconnell, republicans dragged their feet on it and here we sit today when donald trump has asked congress to give an additional $2,000 to the american people, mitch mcconnell is standing in the way. when you look at the coverage of it, what you see is a clear divide. local media covered this story perfectly. what they have done, they digged into it and 15eu said why can'te american people, many are unemployed, many are trying to figure out how to make ends meet, why can't they get the $2,000. the mainstream media made the story about this age-old battle in washington between nancy pelosi, mitch mcconnell and donald trump. when it really should be a battle for what's best for the american people and on this one mitch mcconnell and senate republicans are in the wrong

here. howie: kat, you made the point about much of the coverage but trump centric. but by delaying the signing of the bill after christmas eve, the president did unfortunately delay unemployment benefits for millions of americans and again we have to come back to this question the media asked which is why didn't he weigh in sooner when he might have had a chance of getting somewhat larger checks by putting pressure on republicans while the thing was being negotiated. >> look, i certainly don't think there was ever really too much hope of this actually happening this way especially since our lawmakers don't work in the holidays. we sometimes do. but they certainly don't. but, look, and i'm not saying that trump doesn't deserve any criticism here. i think he does. i think we should criticize everyone in government whenever there's something that deserves it. i do think, though, that when so much of the coverage is slanted so negative and they avoid anything that could be positive, a lot of the people that do strongly support the president, that makes them a lot less

likely to listen to any criticism at all. howie: part of the media focus here, jillian, has been the republicans were put into a box where they had to make a choice between supporting president trump, many of them don't want to obviously alienate the president, and standing up for their principles. a lot of them were on record as saying some of them didn't want $600, they didn't like the idea of large stimulus payments which cost another half trillion dollars if you went to the $2,000 checks. >> what i don't understand, howie, is how republicans botched the messaging on opposition to the $2,000 check so badly. by my count, i think i've seen or heard two senators on tv talk to the media about why they on oppose an increase of $1,400. i saw pat toomey and lindsey i y graham. they said they don't on of pose

it for people that really need it, they said we oppose it in the pockets of americans who don't need it, for example everybody who makes under $75,000, including those who haven't lost money during covid, like government workers. what pat toomey said was i want this aid to go out. i want it to be more targeted. i don't want it to go to everybody. i don't want it to be a blanket salary cap, i want it to go to americans who lost jobs, businesses and homes do yo durie pandemic. that makes an awful lot of sense. howie: on that point, while $2,000 stimulus checks was the quote, liberal position, the washington post, the editorial page said rather than targeting the neediest folks, the bigger checks would give money to families making as much as $350,000 a year, some of whom weren't hurt at all by the awful pandemic. >> well, i think that's a larger problem that we have with the stimulus relief to begin

with. you see so many stories and local coverage about the fact that joel osteen's church gets $4.4 million and an establishment in washington, d.c., black owned and operated was begging to get another much to keep their doors open. that happens in every city, where small businesses couldn't get paycheck protection but large businesses, people with an ability with a foothold in washington was able to do that which i think is a larger problem with how this sort of stimulus was done and how coronavirus relief was done overall and it should be an indictment on the entire congress and indictment on the entire federal government on how they work to make sure that the small businesses, those in need actually got the money instead of big businesses. howie: right. meanwhile, trump's fading clout in washington was underscored on friday when all but seven senate republicans joined democrats in overriding his veto of the defense spending bill. let me turn to the problems in the rollout of the vaccine.

i've said over and over again, kat, the president deserves a lot of credit that he's not getting from the media on operation warp speed. now that the program has fallen short of its own goals which was by the earned of 2020 -- end of 2020, 20 million americans could be vaccinated. and it's 2 and-a-half million. the press is piling on, it's only about trump, it's all trumps fault. >> that's not surprising whatsoever. federal says it's the states, states says it's the federal. it drives me nuts. how come no one is saying all right, cool, but let's figure it out and solve this because this is a serious thing. right. let's get this done. and the truth is, something that hasn't been covered very much, is that there's has been issues with government bar bureaucracy slowing the fight against the virus. certainly in this case and also at the beginning of the pandemic with testing and there not being

approval of people owne other tn the cdc to do testing for this. this is why i go crazy when everybody says the problems can only be solved by government. we see a coverage of a blame game, not coverage about solutions we now you have the -- howie: the president, who i touting the vaccines as a great success, now tweeting that it is up to the states to distribute the vaccine. obviously, the states play an important role and have to share some of the blame but is this the typical political blame shifting that goes on in d.c.? >> yes, and there's plenty of blame to go around as when you mentioned, howie, over 350,000 americans are now dead. plenty of blame for the federal government, plenty of blame for the states. what i will say is that president trump has made clear from day one that the way sees

this, whether it's the whole issue of preventing and treating the vaccine, whether it's regulations about mask wearing, whether it's the race to a vaccine, whether it's who makes the decisions about who gets the vaccine first, he said you guys, the states, this is up to you. you knows your constituents best, you know who needs access to this stuff most urgently. so a lot of state officials have their head in the sand and are now getting called out for it. howie: one more covid note, a sad one, which is larry king is now in as los angeles hospital battling covid-19. the talk show legend who views light entertainment with serious politics changed the face of broadcasting, is 87 years old. i've known larry for a long time i want to wish the best for him and his family at this difficult moment. ahead we'll talk to jedediah bila. when we come back, the media no longer scoffing at the growing number of republicans who plan to challenge the electoral vote on wednesday. how much controversy will that

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howie: the media had been pour of trying it as a fringe -- portraying it as a fringe movement, a small group of senators, planning to push president trump's claims of widespread election fraud. that changed dramatically yesterday when ted cruz and ten over gop senators and senators-elect said they'll demand a special commission to conduct a ten day audit. >> it's either for democracy or of it's against democracy. josh holly has come out of very clearly against democracy today. >> senator holly's move is in conflict with the establishment rhinos and the radical dems, the left wing national media and

corporate america. all of whom have dismissed any talk of election irregularities. >> these lawmakers aren't even claiming they have evidence. this is just one more vain attempt to thwart the free and fair election of joe biden as the president of the united states. it's undemocratic. it's unamerican. and it will fail. >> january 6th will tell us whether there are any in congress willing to battle for the america that those soldiers fought for, the one that you and i believe in. howie: kat timpf, republican senators who oppose these efforts say it creates an unnecessary spectacle that with democrats controlling the house basically has no chance of success. but with even vice president pence supporting these efforts now, at least lending rhetorical support, doesn't that make impossible for the press to just write it off. >> yeah, it certainly does.

and many have made the point, particularly thinking of that editorial in the new york post, before this effort was all happening, that this kind of distracts from georgia which is super important and even perhaps might make people less likely to vote if they think it's all rigged anyway. maybe not. maybe they'll be encouraged by more volunteers looking to watch these things. i think, again, people are out of touch in much of the media thinking nobody really thinks this, nothing will really happen when really there are a lot of people that really certainly do. and it comes down to engaging that and being aware so you're not super blind-sided when something like this happens. howie: yeah. gillian turner, with ted cruz and senate supporters wanting to create a special election audit commission, was last down in 1877, i think it's harder for the press to minimize this. i think many in the press misjudged the determination of these opponents. you can't just write it off as in the lawsuit, the unsuccessful

lawsuit against mike pence. is it now being elevated to a test of democracy? >> yes, with 12 senators backing not certifying the he'll h elecn results, absolutely it's a test of democrat c i will say one of the senators who signed onto this, senator marsha blackburn, i had the opportunity to interview her yesterday within the hour that they announced this new effort and one of the things i asked her was what they hoped to accomplish out of it one of her first answers was you know, gillian, there has been resistance to president trump and never-trumpers in washington, driving policy against his agenda the entire time. i stopped her and i said is this political res tri because and -- retribution and she said of course not. she went on to explain herself. what the media is underestimating is the

opportunity republicans are seeing in this to drive home their message which they don't believe president-elect biden won this fair and square. that's what they're trying to do here. i don't believe any of o them believe a 10 day audit will review the results of the election. howie: richard fowler points out the media had no problem when the democrats did this in 2017 after president trump's election, especially in 2005 after president bush's election where congress had to debate the whole thing. so a bit of a double standard here? >> listen, should the media cover this, howie? they should. they should cover it for exactly what it is, spectacle. in a court of law just like in journalism, have you to have evidence, have you to have evidence, you have to have sources that say there was indeed election fraud, the election was indeed -- people were taken advantage of, people cheated. but there's no evidence of that you see many, many dozens of cases where there was no evidence of that. so once again, you're going to

see republicans play politics and the media will cover it but i do hope the media covers it honestly, for exactly what it is. fraud and an attack on our democracy. howie: there was also no evidence during those effort by democrats which i guess was a symbolic protest. >> absolutely. howie: i've got to move on here. gillian, kat mentioned a new york posted tore y'all, front page piece earlier this week saying mr. president, stop the insanity, you lost the election, you're cheering for an undemocratic coup when you have the new york post, the wall street journal, conservative editorial page saying trump is having a fantasy about overturning the election, both of those newspaper share common ownership with fox news. what does that say about the conservative media now turning on the president? >> well, it does seem that the post and the journal in particular have veered sharply

away from president trump over the last couple of weeks. what underrides that, my guess is as good as yours. i will say, though, to richard's point a moment ago, political theater has become an objectione ron. the act is as important as how the votes turn out. in terms of washington's perspective on itself, the media's perspective on washington, to dismiss something as political theater or spectacle is to miss the point. howie: kat, i'll give you the last 2 20 seconds. >> look, it's something that is being taken very seriously. i agree with jill juan, unfortunate -- jil gillian, unfortunately, that political he theater is what politics is, instead of reading bills, they're busy looking at how to look to voters on tv, on the internet, and i'm not surprised to see this and i think we'll see a lot more stuff like this. howie: the reason there's a

fertile climate for this, the majority of republicans don't believe joe biden won the election fairly. thanks to all. covering georgia runoffs with control of the senate in the balance, mike emanuel is standing by. golo is the smart weight loss solution that works! go to golo.com where over 1 million people just like yourself have found golo and the answer to a new and better way to lose weight. this is not only a weight loss journey, this is a complete transformation mentally and physically. (announcer) so many people have changed their lives and lost the weight with the help of golo. why shouldn't you? want to lose 60 pounds? how about 100 pounds? you can! and golo will give you the incredibly effective tools

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howie: the media have turned tuesday's two senate runoffs in georgia into a national election for the obvious reason that if the republican incumbents lose both races the democrats will take control of the united states senate. let's bring in hill watcher, mike emanuel. he'll be anchoring special coverage today as the 117th congress is sworn in and mike, the press has been pouncing on the fact that president trump tweeted that the georgia he'l election, not just his own, but the senate races are illegal and invalid even as he'll campaign

for the candidates, kelly loeffler, on fox news sunday today, wouldn't say whether she agrees with the fraud charges. >> i think it's making republicans nervous about turnout on tuesday with this critical runoff races in the state of georgia, when you talk about the president saying, you know, that basically the system's broken, that the system was rigged and also going tomorrow to georgia to try turn out the vote and so there are a lot of frustrated republicans all across the country, a lot of them in the state of georgia. if they are convinced that somehow the 2020 election was unfair to president trump, what's the incentive for getting out. so i think a lot of people, majority of leader mitch mcconnell's office are anxious right now and republicans on the ground in georgia trying to drive this across the finish line worry the mixed messaging may hurt turnout and hurt them in the critical runoff races. howie: as the focus on

inconsistencies by republican senators, kelly loeffler and david perdue, hurting them? i'm thinking for example that neither one of them was in favor of $2,000 stimulus checks. in fact, senator perdue didn't want any direct stimulus payments at all. they both obtained -- abstained from the the veto override. >> the president's actions put them in an awkward spot. are you with the troops or are you with with president trump and they want to be both. in georgia, there's a tremendous military poll laying populationn population. you don't want to ail net the families. you need -- alienate the families. they were in a tough spot. kelly loeffler asked questions about that today. she was candid that she was in a tough spot and so bottom line, she tried to, you know, please

both bases. the trump supporters and also the military folks. howie: thread that needle. the atlanta journal constitution reported that democrat raphael warnock is running against senator loeffler, that his ex-wife accused him or running over her foot. there was police body cam footage showing warner denying this and she saying he's a great actor and then the police found no injury and no charges were filed. this keeps getting brought up. does it deserve a lot of media attention? >> it's interesting. i've covered campaigns going back to bush v gore 2000 and you know republicans, democrats, they always try to figure out like what in their candidate's background could be potential bombs that could come out of at the last minute that could jeopardize the candidacy and i would think perhaps alleged assault of your wife with your vehicle would be a big one and kudos to the atlanta journal constitution for at least checking out the story, doing some reporting on it.

it's not entirely clear what the impact has been. i've sampled a lot of the coverage. i haven't seen it all. but part of the postmortem may be why did you vote for him and why didn't you vote for him and did some of the issues affect the final vote. howie: finally, mike, with senator cruz, senator holly leading the effort to create a commission to examine the electoral college results and perhaps overturn the election, other republican senators like mitt romney and others of, pat toomey, strongly opposing that. is it as accr acrimonious behine scenes? >> you're seeing republican senators trying to distinguish themselves. this is a situation that majority leader mitch mcconnell tries to avoid every chance possible, one reason perhaps he didn't put the $2,000 stimulus checks on the floor.

certainly, some wanted to vote for them but he does everything possible to avoid dividing his conference. this is dividing his conference and so something that's makes the majority leader very uncomfortable starting this 117th congress today. howie: that will be the story this week and we'll be watching your coverage. coming up on media buzz, how the press has dealt with the past year's crises and why social media turned so toxic, jedediah bila is on deck.

howie: we're in the middle of a pandemic, a struggling economy and disputed election, all that is putting pressure on the media. joining us from new york is jedediah bila, the co-host of "fox & friends weekend." let me get you into this unfolding story about the effort by ted cruz, josh holly, other republican senators to challenge the electoral college results.

do you think the media misjudged the seriousness and widespread support in the gop for this effort even though everybody says it's doomed to fail? >> you know, i don't think it's widespread support, to be honest. i actually find it really outrageous. and the reason is that if you look at what's gone on here, i think the media's actually been pretty fair, particularly the news divisions. i know our network has done a fantastic job, i say that objectively, of covering the facts of what's going on. this has gone through the courts, 60 cases have been brought to the courts, oftentimes widespread voter fraud hasn't been alleged in court because there isn't evidence to support that. if you look at the evidence that has been shown, it does not support that. there's nothing that supports that this was rigged or stolen. and i think it's a very dangerous precedent. elections have consequences. i think you have to accept. i understand, believe me, howie, if you don't like the results or if you were hoping for a trump re-election or you're worried about policy that's going to

come through a biden administration, i think those are all legitimate concerns but the idea that you can have a secure election and if you don't -- don't take my word for it, take dhs, republicans secretaries of state, trump appointed judges, you know, it's not just me saying that. that's what the evidence supports, that this was a secure election. you don't want people to then feel that they can on a whim just say, well, it wasn't secure, based on really nothing, not adequate evidence to support that and try to overturn the will of the people. howie: it's been a pretty horrible year, especially because of covid-19, which you personally battled and times of crisis and tragedy the media sometimes rises to the occasion and sometimes they do not. a lot of people think the press made things worse in 2020. >> you know, i think it depends on what aspect you're looking at. in some cases, i think initially there was a rush to try to figure out what was going on with respected to covid-19 and you had a lot of mixed messaging coming from within the medical community, which then bled into

the media which then bled out to everyone in terms of wear a mask, don't wear a mask, et cetera. i think that some of the media mistakes that were big was when we started to get the facts on things like school reopen offings and the facts that schools were not super spreaders and children were kept out of school for too long, there seems to be a resistance to report what was going on with that, same thing with lockdown measures. outdoor dining, that was not a super spreader. that needed to be front and center. the same thing goes for holding governors accountable. there was a quick rush to hold president trump accountable, he deserved on o some of that in ts of the mixed messaging. there was a lot of problems coming from andrew cuomo. that guy somehow walked away with an emmy when he was responsible for some of the worst decision making related to nursing homes. now he's responsible for -- look at the rollout of the vaccine in new york. they have all of these vaccines, they're not being distributed to people.

gavin newsom is now being held accountable for media where they're covering this recusal attempt. i think there were a lot of steps where there was more than interest in making this about president trump and about this administration and politicizing it than there was about getting facts out to people, not only about the virus but about which leadership really need todd be held accountable throughout the process. howie: let's talk about social media and how journalists like you deal with what are sometimes brutally personal attacks. you had to take time off because you had a home emergency from a pipe leak and a couple of geniuses on twitter said maybe it should be a permanent vacation. you reposted the mean tweets where people call you worthless, piece of trash and worse. 40u dhow do you deal with this? >> this is the way of the world right now. i think there is unfortunately an expectation of allegiance to talking points, if you're viewed as a republican. i'm not a rent i'm a libertarian

-- i'm not a republican. i'm a libertarian. if you're viewed as that, people expect you to hold a certain position on all issues. if you stray at all, that becomes a problem. it's gotten ugly, from political officials and regular people. it's an unfortunate reality. my job is not to tell people what they want to hear, my job is to tell them the truth. i took heat for citing election law, for citing the facts. i didn't have a dog in this fight in terms of -- i was a libertarian and none of the candidates would be my number one choice. i wanted people to get the truth. that's what i'm here to do. i think that's an unfortunate reality where you have people who don't stray that much from the talking points and when someone does they get the heat. howie: they get the heat. it's often very personal and it's interesting the way you choose to deal with with it. jedediah bila, thank you so much for joining us.

we enjoyed having you. >> thank you as always, howie. howie: thank you. i want to go to live pictures on capitol hill, vice president pence just lived. at the end of -- just arrived. at the end of our of program, the 116th congress expires, 117th will be sworn in. fox news will be covering. there will be a lot of people raising their right hands. after the break, a look at 2020, how the press covered the pandemic, the president and is starting to cover the next president. at heinz, every ketchup starts with our same tomatoes. but not every tomato ends in the same kind of heinz ketchup. because you can't be everyone's favorite ketchup without making a ketchup for everyone.

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call 1-800-aspendental or book today at aspendental.com howie: so why were so many people so angry and frustrated with with the media in 2020? i spoke earlier from dallas with steve krakauer, former cable news executive who publishes the fourth watched newsletter and produces megyn kelly's podcast. steve krakauer, welcome. >> hey, howie, thanks for having me. howie: you have a movie poster theory about the last president, the current president, and the next president. explain. >> yes. i think if you look back at the media, we've got the obama administration and the way the media treated president barack obama was, you know, you could say like a superhero and then you've got the next administration, donald trump. almost like a super villain. the bottom line is barack obama, donald trump, you could put them both on the movie poster.

they're selling the movie, selling the media. that is helpful. joe biden, he was like the obama side kick, maybe the robin to the batman. you're not putting him on the movie poster and selling movies. that's going to be a problem for the media across the board. because i think we've got a president now coming in who does not invoke the sort of interest that either of the previous two presidents did. and so that i think is going to be a problem for the media as it looks to think about we're in this new year, what do we do to continue to drive ratings and get interest? howie: considering the media are after all a business. now, looking back at 2020, would you say the press inflicted a lot of damage on donald trump or that donald trump did a whole lot of damage to the reputation of the media? >> yeah, it was a very sadomasochistic relationship. i think there was a lot of going around and a lot of ways, i think that there was -- i don't doubt the motives of a lot of

the media in 2020, when it comes to donald trump or even over the last four years. at the same time, donald trump was good for business. and i think they knew that. i think donald trump knew that also. he want todd have that foil and while he played the antagonist to the media that, were sort of serving as that foil to him that he could be that punching bag. soil not sure anyone really landed blows. i don't know if anyone changed minds when it comes to the media situation or from donald trump. i will say, i think the problem was more of a self-inflicted wounds the media did to themselves over the course of the entire 2020 over a variety of stories from coronavirus to others that were related to sort of donald trump and politics. i think that more of it when they were trying to go after donald trump it ended up being self-inflicted wounds on the media, especially the legacy media. howie: no question about that my theory is that every trump controversy got cranked up to 11, is he cheating at golf, that

sort of thing. when it came to i' impeachment d trying to overturn telex results, i think a lot of trump supporters and conservatives tuned the media out, seeing it as a hostile force. >> absolutely. i think when you make everything into the largest scandal in the world, i think that ends up this crying wolf theory. i think that actually played out a lot i think with coronavirus and i think covid was the story of 2020 and certainly will continue to be, potentially for months and years in the future. but i think one of the things we saw is that we finally -- everything was a scandal in the trump administration. we've reached a level of here's a pandemic, here's actually a giant story that has major implications for the media and now we have a president that -- now we have a media that's attacking the president over of every little thing instinctively when a lot of times there wasn't a lot of maybe scientific evidence to do so.

and so i think that played out in a very negative way for the media and, again, further eroded the trust that the public has from the media when it comes to an important issue like this pandemic. howie: what you had in the early months of the pandemic is the media saying this is really serious, it could be deadly and president trump initially playing it down, then came of course the fall and winter surge and everybody knows how deadly it is across the globe but at the same time the coverage seemed to break down along ideological lines, the virus, the masks, the lockdowns and then i think also to your point about undermining trust, depending on what you believe. >> two quick examples of this. i think in the summer we had a series of -- we had first like anti-lockdown protests that were happening and then we had people going to the beach for memorial day and the media went wall to wall coverage trying to shame people going to the beach because they weren't wearing masks, weren't properly social distancing and this could be a

big super spreader event. we had that. a week later, the george floyd protests broke out, tens of thousands of people protesting all around the country and the same doctors who were on cable news and were in print were not having that same idea about okay of, this might be a dangerous super spreader event when it comes to this ideological situation. so i think that was a very clear case of hypocrisy. another one, more recently, the operation warp speed in june put out -- did a press conference and they said there was a very likely chance we might have a vaccine by the end of 2020. the media treated that as if it was like this fantasy, this complete like that is never going to happen. howie: science fiction, no way. >> doctors, right, impossible, they said. not even -- unlikely, impossible. we reached the end of 2020, millions of people have been vaccinated. that is a clear example where this is a cause and effect. it was very clear the media was

wrong the way they covered this. that further erodes trust. doesn't feel like there's an expertise we can trust when it comes to science. howie: eroding trust seems to be the theme here. i say that with some sadness. because i like the media business. as you said earlier, self-inflicted wounds, more so in 2020 than any recent years. steve krakauer, great to see you. thank you for joining us. >> thanks, howie. howie: still to come, as we begin the new year, is it finally time for the media to break up with the anti-trump resistance? want to sell the best burger in every zip code? add an employee. or ten... then easily and automatically pay your team and file payroll taxes. that means... world domination! or just the west side. run payroll in less than five minutes with intuit quickbooks.

it's moving day. and are doing the heavy lifting, jess is busy moving her xfinity internet and tv services. it only takes about a minute. wait, a minute? but what have you been doing for the last two hours?

delegating? oh, good one. move your xfinity services without breaking a sweat. now that's simple, easy, awesome. xfinity makes moving easy. go online to transfer your services in about a minute. get started today. howie: are the media headed for a breakup with the resistance, that's the question posed by the atlantic. jim acosta had a book deal and

modest level of fame by debating president trump and pushing an agenda on i'm gleyings what we're witnessing is erosion of our freedoms. >> i think we saw the president's true colors today and i'm not sure they were red, white, and blue. >> that's enough, that's enough. >> mr. president, i'm going to ask - -- >> that's enough. >> pardon me, ma'am. >> that's enough. >> i have one other question. howie: acosta tells the magazine that the trump magazine was a nonstop national emergency arounand he couldn't stomach the president's attacks on the press. this is a personal vendetta for acrosacosta. the president is allowed to say whatever he wants about the media. jim acosta says the media will approach joe biden differently. got it. is it any wonder that the 74 million people who voted for of donald trump believes there's a

blatant double standard. new york magazine made a point of saying it didn't require special bravery to report honestly and critically on donald trump. why? because journalist whose are negative were rewarded with cable news contracts, book offers, big followers. reporting on joe biden will be riskier, they could alienate their fans who want the president i'l pummeled the way p was. biden has a lower key style and so far has rarely been challenged. steve krakauer, welcome. >> hey, howie, thanks for having me. >> what's the biggest threat to your transition right now given president trump's unprecedented attempt to obstruct and delay a smooth transfer of power. >> what do you say to immigrant americans who came to the united

states an, looking for stabilit, are seeing what the president is doing. howie: the coverage can't be exactly the same but if journalists roll over for joe biden, rather than hold him to a high standard, it will be clear their coverage is calibrated based upon who occupies the oval office. as for our program, we have always tried provide journalistic balance. i've criticized the media for their negativity against president trump and also held the president accountable when he's gone too far including the denunciations of the press. i'm still vetted to the old fashioned concept of fairness. i very much appreciate your watching. that's it for this edition of media buzz. i'm howard kurtz. here's to a great new year, better than the last one, in 2021. hope you like our facebook page, we post my daily columns there.

let's don continue the conversan twitter, check out my podcast, media buzz meter, subscribe on apple itunes, amazon music or fox news podcast.com.ou we'll be become here next sunday. see you then with the latest buzz. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you.

eric: we start with a fox news alert, at this hour, a new congress. the 117th will be officially sworn into office today on capitol hill. as we take a live look at the doings on the house floor at this moment. members will decide if nancy pelosi continues to serve as speaker of the house. she will have to lead the democrats holding the narrowest majority in 20 years, as well as facing progressives. hello, welcome to america's news headquarters on the fox news channel. i'm eric shawn. hi, molly. >> i'm molly line. as we watch the house speaker election, the republican toaster