howie: this is media buzz. i'm howard kurtz. ahead we'll talk to the president's campaign spokesman, hogan gidley. a day before the house impeach donald trump for the second time with ten republican votes, the president unloaded, speaking to reporters for the first time since the violent insurrection at the capitol that triggered the vote. >> it's really a continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of poll of ticks. it's ridiculous. it's absolutely ridiculous. i think it's causing tremendous danger to our of country. howie: nearly all republicans

imposed the peachment, nancy pelosi said she was sad. >> the president bears responsibility for wednesday's attack on congress by mob rioters. he should have immediately he denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. i think the censure resolution would be prudent. >> it gives me no pleasure to say this. it breaks my heart. it should break your heart. it should break all of sour hearts. howie: the clashing views of the pundits were in some ways as predictable as the outcome. >> we saw the most bipartisan impeachment in american history, a moment that almost assures donald john trump will be forever known as the worst president in history. >> it was hard to stomach. i hope you didn't waste one minute of your precious time watching. it. was just another political exercise in futility, conducted

by self righteous out of touch blow hards. >> the president now has another first to his name, the first and only president ever to be impeached twice. let's let that sad and shameful fact register for just a moment. >> what we watched today was a vindictive political charade, political theater, typical outrage, a slap in the face to the president and all of his supporters, some 75 million of them with just one week until inauguration day. >> donald j trump who has dragged the country through four long years of horror, that guy has been impeached for the second time in a year. even if you don't like him, he lost the election. you know, he's out. isn't that enough? howie: joining us now to analyze the coverage in new york, will cain, co-host of "fox & friends weekend," susan ferrechio, chief congressional

correspondent and leslie marshall, a fox news contributor. what's your take on the media coverage of the house impeaching president trump again, especially with those 10 republicans joining every house democrat in saying that trump incited violence. >> not much light, a lot of heat. that would be my analysis of most media coverage. forgive me if i don't buy nancy pelosi's crocodile tears about how broken hearted she is. she's been on the hunt for president trump for quite some time. you know, when i say that we need light, i would suggest this. i heard alan dershowitz on maria bartiromo's sunday morning futures show, tom cotton pointed out he will be a private citizen by the time this takes place. if you can impeach a private citizen, you're opening a pandora's box of political retribution. the purpose of impeachment is to remove a sitting official from

his office. president trump will no longer be in office. he will be a private citizen. and dershowitz's point, is if that's possible, democrats could impeach a republican running to challenge a democrat in a presidential race. if you can impeach a private citizen, where does that stop? howie: you anticipated a later question. we'll come back to that point. i want to get sue sahn in on this. -- susan in on this. what is your take on the tone of the coverage given that many news stories flatly say president trump, who incited an insurrection at the capitol, dot, dot, dot. >> well, i'm pretty critical of the media coverage so far because it does not -- it's not balanced and the argument the media is making, the most -- the biggest voices in the media is there shouldn't be any balance, it's a clear-cut case of a president inciting a dangerous insurrection. so many reporters were in the capitol and were personally

affected by it all. that's i think part of it, the emotion of it all and the idea that you cannot look at this in any other way than to judge the president as fully guilty. i think that's a dangerous position for the media to be in. i think we need to be -- we have a role to play right now, to be he very careful about how we report the story. the pictures, the video are right there for everybody to see. you can't dispute it. but there was a lot more going on there, outside the capitol, with people who had nothing to do with what was going on in there. to lump everybody together, tens of thousands of people were there and the millions of people who support trump as wanting to bring violence to america, violence to the capitol, it's just not balanced and it's not accurate and i think it takes us down a very slippery slope. howie: leslie, i'll get you in on the impeachment coverage in the next round. i want to get to this. cnn was the first to report, followed by the washington pots, lots of other news organizations

that a virginia man had been arrested near the capitol with fake credentials and 500 rounds of ammunition. turns out he was a private security guard working down continue to. he had a nongovernment credential. he forgot -- he says he forgot he had a firearm in his truck. he was released after a hearing. there are conflicting accounts about whether there's evidence of a plot to assassinate officials on january 6th, certainly i think we were all very lucky that it didn't turn into a massacre. could the media be rushing to judgment about the state of the current threats, based on these reports? >> absolutely. but i think part of that is the climate that we live in, not just after january 6th, but quite frankly, where that drive-through mentality, i want it, i want it now, i want it fast, i want to be first. that's what we see in the media. unfortunately, many of us, myself included, thought we already have one guy who is going to try and blow up the

inauguration and perhaps our next president, when we find out later the problem is who is going to be willing to sit on the information they're given and then retract and make adjustments and corrections later. howie: will, i take your point about not enough media cents civil about impeach -- skepticism about impeaching somebody that will be a private citizen. you can't say this is all the liberal media. a number of conservative outlets say trump committed an impeachable president. it seems to me the criticism of the president's actions, whether you think it's impeachable or not, cuts a across the usual left, right lines. >> absolutely. my criticism is this, is that donald trump has become an obvious ratings driver. but a simplistic, thumbs up or thumbs down on whether or not you like him. and that does cross political lines. what i'm suggesting is we need

to look deeper than whether or not we like donald trump. in other words, you can look at this potential impeachment on three levels. okay. you can look at it the constitutional level which i think is the most important level to be having this conversation. you can look at it from the legal level. i don't think anything president trump said that day amounts to legal incitement to violence. i don't think many people actually think it survives the 1969 free speech he test. test. there's the moral case. i think you can say this at the same time. president trump does bear responsibility, some responsibility for a climate of chaos last wednesday. does that amount to enough to impeach him? what i think his impeachment becomes just political retribution and that's all about hate. that's not advanced us as a country, does not provide light on whether or not we should do it. it becomes a reversion to thumbs up or thumbs down, do you like donald trump. we can, we should do better than that. howie: yeah.

the media are always consumed with thumbs up or thumbs down on donald trump. leslie, i want your response to that and also to this. which is much of the media i think do want president trump convicted in the senate trial, even when he's a private citizen. and then in the follow-up vote to bar him from holding public office in the future which is about 2024. i'm not sure there's much grasping with the fact that this will be a giant distraction for joe biden as he takes office and tries to grapple with the pandemic and the economy and other things after january 20th. >> yeah, there's so much here. first of all, he has been impeached. i heard will say earlier as a private citizen, can we impeach him. he's already been impeached. what happens in the senate obviously is he convicted or acquitted, if convicted do they prevent him from seeking future office. we have to remember, it was a republican, the current senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell, who said we're going to do this later, we're going to focus on the

inauguration. he quite frankly could have put it to bed because also to will's point, constitutionally, this is unchartered territory. this is a huge distraction to the beginning of the biden administration. but are we in this country saying that whether it is the president, whether it is potentially congressional members, are our elected officials above the law. if in fact the president did incite as the majority of people in this country believe, and a lot of people are using that have been arrested with federal authorities as excuses, just at justifications for their actions, that he led me there, if that is true, do we not punish or hold that individual accountable because of where it sits on the calendar because of the new administration coming in, i don't think so. we shouldold accountable those o

conducted the riot. the president released a video having to do with the violence one week earlier. let's take a brief look. >> mob violence goes against everything i believe in and everything our movement stands for. no true supporter of mine could ever endorse political violence. howie: you susan, what do you make of the president releasing that video, especially with media reports that he was sort of pushed into do that by advisors that worry he may have some legal liability for what happened at the capitol? >> well, the protesters i talked to outside the capitol told me that they came to washington because donald trump summoned them there and they wanted to see the president and they marched to the capitol because the president told them to go there and let their voices be heard by the lawmakers who were conducting the certification of

the electoral college that very day. so the but had a responsibility and i think above all else, the president has to show character and leadership at critical moments and i don't think there's any argument that he didn't do that. he released a video later after the fact but at the moment, when everything was falling apart at the capitol he was silent and that's going to stand forever in history, no matter how you judge the president, whether you love him or hate him. that fact remains that people in the capitol were tweeting out, calling on the president, do something, and he didn't. howie: let me jump in here. i want to get one last question to will. mitch mcconnell's office leaked to news organizations that he believes president trump committed an impeachable offense and is happy the house is taking this action. he later put out a statement that he hasn't made up his mind and privately signaled other republican senators can vote

their sheens on this. -- conscience on this. >> what it suggests is that mitch mcconnell and probably many republicans alongside him would like donald trump to go away. that's what they hope. remember, the purpose of of impeachment is to remove a sitting official. what mitch mcconnell is hoping is there's a secondary purpose, is that you can keep him from running again in 2024. i think it's pretty clear that mitch mcconnell hopes that's the case. howie: part of the battle over the future of the republican party. ahead, trump spokesman hogan gidley is standing by. when we come back, corporate america and social media retaliate against donald trump, how far is too far? 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.

howie: mayor bill de blasio made a great show of going on msnbc to announce new york city is breaking its business ties with the trump organization. >> the contracts make very clear, if a company, the leadership of that company is engaged in criminal activity, we have the right sever the contract. howie: besides de blasio's grandstanding, the pga has canceled the championship next year which was to be at trump's new jersey course, deutsche bank said they won't lend trump anymore money. is much of corporate america trying to cancel donald trump? >> without a doubt. corporate america has never been more political than they were in 2020. most corporations took positions on the black lives matters

protests which clearly had a political agenda behind it with a political platform behind it. this is corporate america taking a position, as private companies are allowed to do. we've never seen a period in time when private companies have been more open about politics. this is a media show. i know you're covering this. i hope we hear the drum beat of threats to free speech going on in the country right now. you would have to be hard of hearing not to hear it. with aoc saying she wants to rein in the free press, we should be listening. we don't just see corporations, we see media and journalists cheering on the idea of limiting speech. i hope we hear the foot steps, the drum beat, the marching is headed our way. howie: i've reported on aoc saying democrats are considering a commission that could look at reining in media coverage, i don't think there's any role for government in that whatsoever. leslie, let's pick up the

points. snapchat has joined twitter, permanently banning donald trump's account. you may agree with kicking him off social media. why isn't the press looking at the implications for free speech and in terms of reputation, twitter and facebook's ban, makes the companies look like a bunch of liberal partisan. s.>> it does. they're private citizens, the first amendment doesn't apply to the corporations. howie: it's not a legal question. legally they have the right to do it, i grant you that. should they be doing it? >> again, as i was trying to say, these corporations are all about two things. the bottom line and their image. they're distancing, whether it's deutsche bank or twitter, themselves for an individual they feel that tarnishes their brand and could affect their bottom line in the future. i don't think silicon valley cares whether the rest of the world views them as liberal or not.

we forget in the united states, the corporations don't just include american consumers but international consumers, the world is watching and watching the reaction from these companies and all they care about at the end of the day is their image and bottom line. howie: susan ferrechio, forbes magazine published a piece warning companies if they hire any of the trump spokesmen and spinners, former spokesmen and spinners, forbes will assume that everything your company or firm talks about is a lie, they're going to scrutinize, double check, investigate with the same skepticism we would approach a trump tweet. your thoughts on that? >> you how far is this going to go? is it going to go to past the trump administration into anyone in the republican party who ever once expressed support for the president? i think the media should be very alarmed by this, by any kind of treatment that seems to suppress free speech, that seems to cancel people for their political views, or guilt by association. where does it stop?

things seem a little out-of-control right now. i think will was expressing that earlier. i agree with him. and we have a role in the media right now, we should be watching this very closely and i'm sad to see big names in the media kind of cheering this on, in part because a lot of them, their fame and fortune was tied to hating donald trump so they're just going to keep that going as long as they can profit off it, that's my view. but i think as an objective journalist, we need to take a close look at that and be very, very worried when people are being silenced over association with the president. howie: what's interesting is that twitter's ceo, jack dorsey, said well, this is a failure for twitter to have to ban trump. washington post, new york times reporting he was reluctant to do it. he basically bowed to many left-leaning staffers at his company who wanted a trump ban a long time ago. that has serious free speech

implications. up next, a look at how the capitol violence affected the debate and later jason chaffetz joins our discussion. did 20 years of clinical studies on a formula only found in preservision. if it were my vision, i'd ask my doctor about preservision. it's the most studied eye vitamin brand. if it were my vision, i'd look into preservision. only preservision areds2 contains the exact nutrient formula recommended by the nei to help reduce the risk of moderate to advanced amd progression. i have amd. it is my vision so my plan includes preservision.

howie: when the house debated president trump's impeachment there were unmistakable signs of the violent insurrection in the same building one week earlier. look at the national guard troops. joining us now, mike emanuel, fox's chief congressional correspondent. many lawmakers talked about the fear and trauma they felt hiding in indies closed -- undisclosed rooms during the riot. how much do you think this influenced the impeachment debate. >> it was fascinating. it was an attack on the people's house where all these people work. unlike the previous impeachment which i covered, which was about a phone call ukrainian leader, it was out there, this was something that the folks lived

through just a week earlier so the emotion was still fresh and seemed to have an impact on the debate. certainly made it more real i think to a lot of the lawmakers and perhaps connected better with a lot of their constituent as opposed to the first impeachment 13 months earlier. howie: yeah, when it happens in your home, certainly the personal impact is a lot greater. congresswoman mikey cheryl and other democrats are calling for an investigation of whether or not unnamed republicans who were involved in allowing certain people who ended up storming the capitol to conduct house tours the day before. let's take a look at that. >> i was flat on the ground as other members were calling loved ones because they thought that might be the last phone call they made. to imagine that colleagues of mine could have aided an abetted this is incredibly offensive. howie: how seriously should the press take the suggestions that unnamed members may have helped

some of these thugs conduct reconnaissance inside the capitol? >> i think there's going to be a pretty significant probe into that. obviously, over the years, we've seen lawmakers taking their constituents through the capitol and it's no big deal. during covid, it's been a different thing where it's not been as common but when you consider perhaps tours the day before the attack, certainly that's worth investigating, looking intos and my sense is there will be hearings looking into that very subject as well. howie: right. much of the media are kind of applauding liz cheney, the number three house republican, for breaking with the leadership and voting for impeachment. how seriously should we take the stories about deep divisions in the republican party, a trump faction, a never trump faction as we held into the biden era a. >> karl rove says there's a civil war underway. i would take him at his word. i think there's an interesting

divide as a journalist to cover when you look at kevin mccarthy who said let's censure the president. he was tough on the president on the house floor during the impeachment debate. you have liz cheney coming out earlier saying this is a vote of conscience, vote your conscience on this one and coming out very strongly the night before and kind of leading the charge on this and so you've got an establishment name, cheney, you've got another establishment name, mcconnell that would like to move on from the trump era and they are wrestling for the future of the republican party. it's going to take a long time for them to figure this out. the direction of the party going forward. but there's some folks who would like to say good-bye to president trump once he checks out of the white house on january 20th. howie: mike, thanks. ahead on media buzz, the president lost his social media platforms. hogan gidley on how that's affecting his final days. do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy, even a

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howie: in three days, in normal times this would be our top stories, joe biden will be sworn in as the 46th president. the trump drama continues to dominate media coverage, even as biden unveiled a $2 trillion covid relief plan. >> i believe we have a moral obligation and this pandemic and america, we cannot let people hungry, we cannot let people get evicted. howie: joining us now are two former members of the house, and utah republican jason chaffets, a fox news contributor, author of the forth coming book, they never let a crisis go to waste, also joining us democrat harold ford. let's have a blunt conversation. jason, the national spotlight should be on joe biden being sworn in on wednesday and his agenda, he's talking about doing executive orders at the beginning. isn't the media's trump

obsession and ongoing impeachment pretty likely to upstage biden? >> well, trump equals ratings. trump drives the media attention and the public's attention. good, bad, ugly, donald trump is a showman and people like to see him. this will continue, though, because you have to figure out whether or not the house and when is the house going to send those articles of impeachment over to the senate. and by the rules of the senate, they must bring it up. they have to set aside everything. unlike the house, the senate can only deal with one issue at a time. joe biden's got a big agenda. he's got to get a cabinet done, he's got covid, a relief package. it's going to put chuck schumer in an interesting position. it's up to nancy pelosi as to when they send it over. howie: harold, joe biden has been restrained in his comments to the press about impeachment. he never endorsed it, i said it was up to congress. does that sideline him from the he debate and does he want to be

sidelined from talking about trump so he can talk about his programs? >> first off, happy sunday. thankings for having me -- thanks for having me on. i think joe biden signaled his primary focus is filling his cabinet and beginning to enact big parts of his agenda. he laid out a big part of it in the last 24 to 36 hours. i'm reminded as we prepare to go into the dr. king holiday of another freedom fighter who said you achieve more through acts of mercy than through acts of retribution. jason raised a good point, when this is sent over to the senate, the article of impeachment or if they do another article, the senate has to take it up. it's unclear, i've seen legal experts and read some things suggesting that may not be the case. i hope, i sincerely hope that the primary focus is on trying to heal some of the toxicity and to find ways to lower the volume. there is nothing wrong with

discourse that is disaagreeable. howie: i'll come back to that point. i want to have you -- i'm sure it was hard for both of you as former members to watch the violence in the house on january 6th. the press has played up the ten republican house members who voted to impeach including liz cheney. kevin mccarthy, his backup plan was censure. do you find the coverage of impeachment unfair. >> i think it's a big deal. you have people that died. it was an attack on the capitol. i think there was this thought that the capitol was invincible. i think members thought that whatever came at the capitol, the capitol police could repel it and yet those pictures and images were horrific. you had somebody in leadership on the republican side of the aisle vote to impeach the president. i think it's a big story. but i also think the country when joe biden is sworn in wants to take a collective deep breath and move on. there comes a point when they exhausted the story and i think we are getting to that point right now.

howie: interesting. harold, the biggest knock on nancy pelosi pursuing this is that donald trump leaves office on wednesday, he'll be a private citizen. it seems strange to a lot of people to conduct an impeachment trial, when he will leave office as a result of the election. .>> i would agree with that. i think what jason said is why so many members of congress are conflicted on this. having served in the body along with jason, i know just about every part of the u.s. capitol they were in. thank god they didn't find vice president pence. reports suggested they were within 35 yards of him. there's a lot of concern there and the president didn't take to calling off this mob, these terrorists, as they terrorized our capitol. i think you've got to be bigger. i don't have all the facts that they have in front of them in front of me. as an american citizen i'm ready to move on and i'm ready to move on and i hope in a way that will allow us to heal and if there is

-- i think kevin mccarthy's idea around a censure, maybe that's something the congress and senate should pursuant it's unclear as we sit here today how mitch mcconnell feels about this. press reports suggest he wants to see the president impeached. i don't know the answer to that a censure seems reasonable. we shall see how that plays out. jason, the media always talk about unity and so you have republicans saying well, foregoing a senate trying would produce unity. democrats saying nice try, holding trump accountable would produce unity. can there be unity in this environment that's so polarized over trump and over the violence in the capitol? >> i think it's laughable on the republican side of the aisle, to think the media or the democrats want unity because they just sat through four years, even before donald trump was sworn in, they said they were going to impeach this president. and so to just suggest oh, well now we'll have unity now that our person at the helm shall

that's, again -- there's going to be a lot more healing that needs to go on rather than some hollow words after four years of what we went through. howie: all right. ford, 20 seconds. >> jason, i hear what he is saying. we have every time we go from one president to another there's conflict and legacy of conflict that needs to be corrected and healed. the country gave us divided government, 50/50 in the senate and smaller majority for democrats in the house and they elected a president whose whole career is organized around trying to find compromise. i hope it bodes well for us. howie: good debate. thank you so much. when we come back, hogan gidley, former white house deputy press secretary, is on deck.

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impeachment is hogan gidley, the former trump campaign press secretary and former deputy white house press secretary and hogan you were a top spokesman in the first impeachment so you've had experience in this. do you believe the media are promoting this impeachment because as you know, there's been an awful lot of criticism of president trump's handling of january 6th including from the >> well, they promoted the last one too, howie. nancy pelosi continues to play politics with people's lives. she did it in the first one. remember when donald trump was talking about coronavirus in february? what were the democrats focused on? politics. calling the president glee knowc and rate i. they're doing it all over again. for months, nancy pelosi held up trillions of dollars that would have gone directly to american workers to help them. the relief they needed through this government-imposed shutdown. we needed that money. she held it up by her own of admission for political reasons. and she did it for months.

but within hours, she could whip up these fake phony impeachment charges against the president? it's pretty clear what her priorities are. what she's trying to do here is insidious in this way. she's saying if you do not agree with her then the 25th amendment should be invoked, if you don't agree that donald trump should be impeached, then you agree with the lawless thugs that attacked the capitol. the republicans have been consistent in decrying and saying that the death and destruction, billions of dollars of which occurred this past officer is wrong. they also said the attack on the capitol is wrong. democrats only -- as relates to protection of the people in law enforcement when it suits them politically. howie: last. laterally kudlow, top economic guy at the white house, tells the wall street journal about the president on january sixth,

i was hoping you would come out of quickly and call everybody back, stopping the violence, would have been adviced to acknowledge that, he said he was disappointed in the president's treatment of mike pence. a lot of allies and aides have saying his conduct on january 6th was wrong. >> he's getting the information from attorneys and advisors, who are telling him they have evidence of certain things he's going to say this is what i know and what i've been told. the president doesn't make these things up, whether it be advice relating to the coronavirus, that he got from dr. fauci and dr. birx, or whether related to the way the election was conducted. this information is out there. he's not just hearing it from advisors. real americans experienced problems during the election. president called it out in real-time beforehand, he said we're going to the capitol and march peacefully. we're going to make our voices heard.

then the media though are trying to have it both ways, howie, on one hand he should be censored by big tech and not be allowed to talk, he shouldn't say anything and when he doesn't say anything and can't say anything because the platforms have removed him they say where's the president, why aren't we hearing from him. the whole thing is disingenuous and if we're going to talk about rhetoric that incites people, let's talk about what nancy pelosi said, why aren't there more riots and insurrections in the streets. eric holder saying when they go low, we kick them. maxine waters says you find people in the administration, tell them they're not welcome here. that's what democrat does. howie: i'm trying to make the point that beyond the media and certainly the coverage can be criticized, you have three cabinet officials who resigned and other republicans who are finding fault. you've gotten a little bit of mockery over this exchange.

>> with the social media crackdown does he feel em mass craigslisted as he -- emasculated as he heads out of office. >> i think the most masculine person to hold the office is the president of the the united states. howie: do you wish you phrased it differently? >> i do not. this president is the first president in decades to have the courage and kong vicks and the cahones to say america first. and in the face of 95% negative news coverage, two impeachments, a russian witch hunt hoax that attacked him, his family and his staff, he was able to pass policies that helped all americans regardless of race, religion, color or creed and that takes a toughness that i think few in the business has. for the media to try and lecture me on what masculinity is

laughable. the only time they bring it is up is to say masculinity is toxic and shouldn't be talked about in polite society. give me a break. howie: the washington post reports that the president is isolated and culen and unhappy that he's not being defended more aggressively. his relationship with rudy giuliani is fractured and he doesn't want to -- is balking at paying legal bills. we read about the difficult relationship between the president and the vice president. if these and similar media reports are true, it's not a pretty picture. >> yeah, but there's a big if there. i don't know if any of these reports are true. and we can't corroborate that information. especially when the media lies about this president fairly consistently. the fact is, i'm sure the president wants to look back at his time in the white house and in the office as being extremely successful. record-setting success and record-setting time on behalf of

all american as i mentioned before. the policies he put in place, rebuilding the military, for example, making other countries pay their fair share, defending this nation. what he did, without the levers of the swamp, without needing all of the folks who for years said these peace deals couldn't be done in the middle east, he was able to accomplish it. the successes he had have been absolutely incredible and i think that's what he's talking about here. we shouldn't run from it. howie: hogan gidley, thanks for coming in this sunday. still to come, are the media exacerbating the deep divisions in america and can that change?

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howie: joining us now to talk about the media in the new era, march raleighson, -- mra liasson. this is the most polarized i've ever seen the country. in the wake of the second impeachment, the heart breaking violence at the capitol. how much responsibility do the media bear for the deep, deep divisions? >> you know, it's easy to say that the media loves conflict. i always hate to talk about the media because it's not just one monolithic thing, there's many different outlets. but it's true that the media loves conflict and we go out searching disagreements within a party, between two parties, et cetera. however, this particular case i think is different because we are divided. we're terribly divided. and i think that our role as journalists is to report. right now, there's just a flood of factual reporting, what happened, who said what, what did trump say, what did ben

sasse say. it's not that -- i don't think the media is shaping the narrative so much. the narrative is so overwhelming, just the amount of video from last wednesday, you can watch the impeachment proceedings on the floor. so i don't know how much responsibility the media -- howie: well, i'm going to disagree with that. i think the mead are doing more than just holding up a mirror to a fractured society. all the incentives in our of business, true of the web, the national newspapers, the opinion folks at cnn and msnbc and fox news are to stoke the outrage on your side, demonize the other side, to ratchet up the rhetoric so it breaks through the static and it's rewarded with clicks and ratings. >> okay. i agree with you. i was thinking about mainstream media outlets and journalists like myself. the business model of social media is to put more extreme content up. why? and that of course stokes divisions. why? because it keeps people online

longer and they'll see more ads. there's no doubt about that. the business model, the pundit-ocracy, that stokes division. i agree with you there. the work-a-day journalists, their job is to report what's happening. howie: this has affected every news organizations, those that i used to think of as down the middle now have an agenda. i understand straight reporters have a different opinion than opinion people. the lines are blurred. joe biden takes office on wednesday. the media need to hold him accountable as in the trump era. he ran as a candidate of unity. do you think there's anything the media can do to lower the temperature a bit. one of my earlier guests said they think the country is hungry for that. especially in the middle of this awful pandemic. >> i think so. first of all, they can have people with different points of view not yelling at each other,

but agreeing on a common set of facts, having a discussion about how you solve a problem. i mean, as you said, that might go directly against the business model of their news organizations, but yes, i think the media can do that. people who are trying to bridge a divide should be given some air time. howie: well, that's a good suggestion. i wish i could be more optimistic. i think many media organizations are addicted to the conflict model, ratcheting up rhetoric an and all that but maybe there is a market for a calmer you approach. >> joe biden made that message. howie: you now he has to govern with that message. that's harder to do. thank you for joining us. that's it for this edition of media buzz. i'm howard kurtz. we hope you like our facebook page. we post my daily columns there. we'll continue the conversation on twitter. check out my podcast media buzz meter. you can subscribe on itunes,

any place you get pod casts. i think we are trying in this difficult era to provide a fair hearing of these questions which are so ripping our society apart. i think the media do play a role. we'll see you next sunday with the latest buzz.

eric: our of nation's capitol an armed camp at this hour, blanketed in security as the countdown in to president-elect's inauguration is continuing. multiple agencs headed by the see considerate service are in town to make sure the event goes smoothly. the fbi warned there have been what it calls chatter about more potential violence in the days leading up to the inauguration. the agency has not reported any specific threats, despite all the warnings to the nation's capitol and the state capitols across the country. hello, everyone. welcome to america's news headquarters here on the fox news channel. i'm eric shawn.