howie: this is media buzz. i'm howard kurtz. ahead, why president biden's deputy press secretary abruptly resigned last night. after a sustained media barrage in which most news organizations essentially declared him guilty, former president donald trump was acquitted of incitement of violence by the senate as everyone expected and the journalistic narrative was starkly different from the political verdict. >> so 43 republicans until the end of time will have to live with being on the side of no consequences for the person, the president who incited an insurrection. >> it's not criminal, there was

nothing that added up to criminal incitement. it proved to be the wrong process. howie: trump's reaction, another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country. >> their argument is if you commit an impeachable of fence in the last few weeks in office, you do it with constitutional impunity. you get away with it. >> i came down earlier in the week to try to figure out you how to find my way around. i worked in this building 40 years ago. i got lost then. i still do. >> i mean, that was the worst opening statement i ever heard. >> there was no amount of lawyering in the world, even if it had been good, which it wasn't, no amount of lawyering in the world that could ever gloss over what the president and that mob did. >> but at this point, honestly,

who cares? impeachment? the whole thing is ridiculous. they are literally impeaching a president who isn't even the president anymore. they're yelling at someone who has already left the room. howie: it was the video of the capitol riot endlessly replayed by the networks that democrats initially used to make their case. >> so i hope mike has the courage to do what he has to do. [crowd noises] >> this was a fraudulent election but we can't play into the hands of these people. we have to have peace. so go home, we love you, you're very special. [crowd noises] howie: joining us now to analyze the coverage, ben domenech, founder and publisher of the federalist and in a major

development now a fox news contributor. in new york, jedediah bila and harold ford. even as donald trump has been you acquitted for the seeked time, have most of the media fully embraced the democrats' case that he was the inciter in chief and does a that stick? >> of course most of the media has embraced it. they've been saying it for weeks. i think this was yet another impeachment process primarily driven by the media. you saw that in fact in the closing days of it, involving both the incident involving mike lee and tommy tuberville's phone call which led so cons consideration at the end of of the other days and yesterday with jamie raskin kind of surprising senate democrats on the issue of calling additional witnesses. because of press reports. this was an impeachment thats was driven i think by this media push. if it hadn't been, i actually

think democrats could have gotten a lot more out of it as opposed to making the incitement argument one that involves a lot of other politicians who use similar heated language and rhetoric about a lot of different things, you think back to the question of whether bernie sanders, for instance, incited the shooting that happened that obviously hit steve scalise and others on that soft ball field, a lot of politicians are uncomfortable with the idea that that type of rhetoric could be used against them in the future. if they had taken more time and analyzed and investigated what the president did in response to the riot, i think they may have peeled off more republicans in order to support the effort. at the end of the day, instead of censorship and set up going after him in other ways, they decide to go the impeachment route, decided to run with this idea and ultimately the president is going to claim that he was victorious again. howie: jedediah, a source who is in touch with donald trump told me he hated the lawyer,

bruce castor's opening statement, as much as everybody else did and directed his lawyers to go to a more scripted approach with lots of video. but the media did of course hail the democrats for making a powerful case with video. does the media verdict matter in light of acquittal? >> you know, that opening statement by bruce castor truly made very little sense. it was meandering. at times there were anecdotes brought in. i don't know that anyone truly followed that. i think the media wanted him convicted. that goes without saying. but the problem was the charge was wrong. what ben's alluding to is this incitement charge is very hard to meet that standard. what should have been charred was dereliction of duty and that would have led to questions being answered like what was donald trump doing this entire time, all of these hours when the riot was going on. was he calling for security? why did he not make a statement saying go home, stop the

violence immediately? who was he talking to during that time period? that would have led to i think witnesses being called and the problem here, howie, is that nothing got accomplished. this was a complete waste of time. questions were not answered. people who want to know actually what went on and whether or not this was actually an impeachable offense didn't get their questions answered. people feel like there was no accountability for a horrific act that happened and the language does matter. no one is glossing over what happened. mitch mcconnell got up and said listen, i don't believe this is a constitutional crime but game a see thing indictment of donald trump's behavior. this doesn't change the reality that this was a trial and the word incitement and the charge mattered and that's what the problem was from day one. howie: trump did eventually say go home, but let me pick up on the point about the senate republican leader. mitch mcconnell voted to acquit donald trump, on procedural and constitutional grounds. after the trial he sounded like a house impeachment manager. take a look.

>> former president trump's actions preceded the riot for a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty. howie: haired, does that boost the journalists, while trump is guilty even though he got off narrative? >> thanks for having me on. happy valentine's day. if the house impeachment managers listened to the co-panelists this morning, maybe we wouldn't have a conversation about if the media encouraged something or media desired a certain outcome. i do still think that had the democrats offered the dereliction of duty charge that, the same technicality that president trump got off on the other day and was acknowledged even in senate minority leader mcconnell's comments probably would have been the case, it's hard to imagine you impeach someone, a president who is no longer in office.

more americans watch news today to be -- where we are today where we are. without a doubt, based on just reactions to what has been said this morning, president trump did something he should not have done. i'm unclear. i'm pretty clear. if someone had been killed that day, a member of congress -- because there were deaths. if a member of congress or god forbid the president's own vp, i'm not sure we would be so charitable this morning, i'm not so sure we would be so he defiant. we'll see where we're going forward. howie: we're certainly lucky there weren't more casualties. ben, punch bowl news first broke the story about house minority leader kevin mccarthy in a heated call during the riot, president trump telling him, well, kevin, i guess these

people are more upset about the election theft than you are and then republican congresswoman jaime herrera beutler confirmed this on the record. they ended up entering her statement on the record. is that an important statement to get on the record, is that an important moment? >> i'm not sure how much it is, given that it would be hear say. hearsay. it's not like herrera beutler was on the call herself. we need to look at who got what they wanted out of this situation. i think democrats really wanted to damage the president further, to create further splits within the republican party. i think they got what they wanted. mitch mcconnell and a number of conservatives both in office but also in the media landscape, i think felt uncomfortable with what they saw. they created or showed certain riffs that exist within the republican party. but i also think that donald trump kind of got what he wanted out of this which was that clearly showing the majority of the party still stands with him,

that the majority of the party's voters still stand with him and given the kind of motivation going forward, he remains the 800-pound gorilla within the republican party. the media also got what they wanted out of this which is one more bite at the apple of donald trump. we're not going to give up on him yet. we need those ratings. we need to be able to talk about him. we need him to come out of this as someone who continues to be controversial and at the center of conversation. howie: the ratings were significantly lower than the first impeachment trial. a source in touch with trump said he is in a good mood, feels it didn't hurt him at all with his base. thewall street journal wrote his legacy will be stained by this violence and betrayal of supporters in refusing to tell them the truth. your thoughts? >> yeah, i mean, his legacy is stained by his own behavior. you know, you can say did the media want donald trump to fail from day one? yes, absolutely.

you had people calling for his impeachment before he ever took office, saying he needs to be removed. he's an ill legitimate president. we watched that coverage, the russia collusion monday unfold. the in the last few months, donald trump brought this on himself. his behavior was hour of i'll, it was abysmal. there was lying and deceit to the public that was unfortunate and led to people becoming enraged and feeling their rights in a democratic process had been stripped from them. i think he walks away perhaps feeling acquitted. i don't know that he feels vindicated. because there are a lot of people that have their eyes open and have pointed the blame. mitch mcconnell is a powerful guy. there are other powerful republicans that have stepped front and center and said we're disassociating ourselves with that type of behavior. it hasn't been a debate about policy positions. this is about behavior that is unacceptable. we can't tolerate it. that's not what the republican

party represents. that's a split in the party for sure. howie: i have about half a minute. democrats knew they would lose this trial, everybody knew, the media knew. were they trying to win the media verdict and vies tri's history's -- history's verdict by tying him to what happened january 6th. >> the medias january 6th was enraged. i remember how i felt. i've not felt that way since 9/11. i worked in that chamber, in that body, in the capitol. one of the thing that makes us unique is we have a peaceful transfer of power. i understand the outrage. yesterday it put afternoon end o something. howie: ahead, we'll talk to former white house spokesman ari fleischer and when we come back, andrew cuomo drew so much media praise for his handling of covid-19 but that's changing now that the governor's being

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we all felt like we had seen the capitol riot again and again but when house managers played the unseen security camera and body cam footage, even anchors and commentators seemed stunned. >> officer goodman passes senator mitt romney and directs him to turn around in order to get to safety. the first group of assail want as they break into the building, the second man through the window is wearing full tactical body armor and is carrying a baseball bat. you can see vice president pence and his family quickly moved down the stairs. the vice president turns around

briefly as he is headed down. >> it was absolutely horrifying, chilling video that really gave the feeling for what it must have been like to be in the capitol on that day. >> capitol hill police officers being killed, being beaten, being abused. the capitol of the united states being overrun by savages, by animals. >> there were tears in the lies of a lot of people. >> this is all emotional political theater. that's all it is. howie: ben domenech, i was watching this video. it was gripping. it was rivetting. it was ghastly. whatever you think about the case against president trump, this was scary stuff. >> it was absolutely scary stuff and as someone who obviously used to work on capitol hill and in these buildings and halls,

it's disturbing to see. what i was feeling in that moment was i want answers to a lot of questions that i have about what went on and what we are seeing here in addition to just having the footage. the footage makes me want to know more about a number of different things. we still don't really have full details about why the police officer, the capitol police officer, sicknick in this case died and how he died. we had initial reports that turned out to apparently have been inaccurate. i would like to know the answers to certain he details about when certain things happened, why certain things happened and why, frankly, we weren't prepared in this instance. i would have liked to hear from people like mayor muriel bowser about the request for national guard troops, et cetera. i'm unfortunately very sad that we didn't get those answers. howie: a lot of unanswered questions. as journalists we are trained to put our emotions aside in times of tragedy but it seem seemed to me that some of the anchors, correspondents, pundits were almost speechless watching

pelosi aides and romney and schumer and vice president pence fleeing this rampaging mob. >> it's hard to watch. and the thing is, it's not theater because that's what happened. that's what was unfolding. we saw it unfolding in real-time. a lot of video came out after that showed atrocities to law enforcement in particular that was hard to watch. you need to see that stuff. that's why the trial existed. people felt there needed to be a consequence and the questions, it's unfortunate they didn't get answer. it wasn't just to convict donald trump. it was to figure out what went on here. watching the videos, what i felt was what was donald trump doing the whole time, once again, that led me to say why was the charge incitement and not dereliction of duty. why did this go on for so long when you had a commander in chief that could have done something about it, pointing out the flaw in the impeachment argument itself. howie: let me shift gears,

--haired and talk about the -- harold and talk about how the coverage is shifting to andrew cuomo. he's going accused of covering up nursing home deaths in new york, conversations from a top aide about withholding data. did the media overpraise the democratic governor? >> i think in real-time, i think it made sense. he seemed to be transparent. he seemed to be sharing data. he seemed to be giving clear direction. the press reports in the last several days are deeply, deeply disturbing and an investigation will allow the chips to fall where they may. transparency in a crisis, doesn't matter if you're democrat or republican, it's imperative. even if the information is bad. it sounds like from these reports that the governor cuomo didn't shoot straight all the way with the people. i'm going to let this thing play out of. i'm prepared to say wherever the chips fall, we should hold those accountable. one thing, the panelist, i agree with her, that's the question that should be asked in this trial, what did the president

know, why didn't he act when he knew it. howie: ben, some new york democrats joining in the criticism of the governor. this is a governor who wrote a book on leadership, got an emmy award for briefings. why did the media build him up so of much? >> well, i think that emmy award was actually deserved because he was good at playing the part. it turns out, though, that that was just a part and in so many ways he was failing when it came to actually doing his duty. it's extremely disturbing to learn they were covering up certain data that they worried would be used against them by the previous administration and by critics of their administration and the fact that he was continually blaming other governors for his problems is really terrible and deserves to be dug into to the fuggest degree. -- fullest degree. there are democrat governors across the country who have done a good job of handling this. jay insley has done a good job in washington state.

but this is a situation where he was getting credit for what he didn't deserve. howie: the new york times said the intense scrutiny has struck at the core of his competency as a chief executive with the help from the media. >> media protected him because they like him. he has a new york tough thing going on, they think he's a character. the unfortunate reality is, i want to disagree with harold for a second, it's not just in recent weeks. we've known for a long time about his incompetence. he put sick people into the nursing homes. people knew who was at risk for the virus, it was the elderly. luckily, democrats and republicans are united on holding him accountable many i think there will be consequences for the governor. i don't think there will request a big media walkback because they're probably embarrassed that they were so praising of him but i think there will be consequences to pay. howie: the story's definitely not over of. panel, thanks very much for joining us this sunday. up next, an undisclosed romance with an axios reporter helped

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visit conventrydirect.com to find out if you policy qualifies. or call the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining insurance. howie: president biden's deputy press secretary abruptly resigned last night amid growing criticism. t.j. ducklo was in a row a romanticrelationship with alem mccammond. she wrote and talked about biden. when politico's tara palmeri contacted the white house, ducklo called her back and a source familiar with the conversation told me he screamed and at her, called her trash, threatened to, quote, ruin her

career and destroy her on social media. >> he's the first to acknowledge, this is not the standard of he behavior set out by the president, nor is it the standards of behavior set by me. he sent the reporter a personal note, expressing his profound regret. howie: joining us now, susan ferrechio, chief congressional correspondent for the washington examiner. what do you make of the initial one week suspension? because given the way that ducklo spoke to tara palmeri of politico, my source says that conversation happened january 21st. top biden aides knew about this and did nothing until vanity fair reported some of the details. >> the backlash is expected. we know the criticism was against the president. we knew this would be a new era

under the biden administration in terms of how the press and the white house got along. for them to dismiss at first for weeks, knowing the contents of the calls, what happened, and then follow up with a one week suspension was -- as soon as i saw that, i thought, well, countdown to resignation here. i knew you the backlash would be strong and quick and it was. howie: you've been through a few of these. let's take a look at what joe biden told him staff in the first week of his presidency. >> if you're ever working with me and i hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, i promise you i will fire you on the spot. howie: now, here's the statement from t.j. ducklo, saying no words can express my regret, my embarrassment and my disgust with my he behavior. why was that not more obvious to the biden white house?

>> that's a great question. they may not recognize their own vulnerabilities in how they're operating their press shop. i think they do now. i think the apology and the statement by t.j. ducklo was 100% -- he covered it entirely and now they've set things right basically. i don't think his career should be ruined over this. although the contents of the call are very disturbing, not just saying you're going to destroy a reporter, but to go after her in that sort of sexual manner, that's -- that really raises questions about whether he should be in a position where he's dealing with the press ever again. but i think he gave the full -- he made it right. howie: let me jump in. it was a pretty full throated apology. one more note about this which was hours -- four hours in fact after politico called the white house for comment, that was this week, people magazine ran this puffy piece with the white house

cooperation with lexi mccammond and t.j. ducklo talked about how they fell in love and he's battling cancer. >> it was a very nice story. i got through reading it. i was like they sound like a lovely public. 60% of the public has either very little trust in the media or not at all. you go back to politico wanting to write about their relationship and it's important, it's important for the public to know what biases may exist in the press so that they can have a better idea about what they're reading and that's why -- howie: on that point -- forgive me for interrupting. how does axios justify not disclosing any of this earlier and moving alexei mccammond to a beat where she's covering progressives and also biden's vice president and she continued to talk and write about joe biden.

>> it's a lack of recognition of their internal biases. i think the mainstream media needs to look inward at their biases. this is an example of that, that she could write about the vice president's office which of course would involve the president at least tangentally. they saw the opportunity to get some scoops because she has that inside connection. howie: all right. susan ferrechio, thanks very much for joining us on this topic. coming up, ari fleischer weighs in on the media, donald trump impeachment and the gop's future and later frank luntz and his focus group on the senate trial. is mealtime a struggle? introducing ore-ida potato pay. where ore-ida golden crinkles are your crispy currency to pay for bites of this... ...with this. when kids won't eat dinner, potato pay them to. ore-ida. win at mealtime.

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hard to watch an impeachment trial that grew out of unproven claims of a stolen election and also the awful carnage in that building where you worked as a congressional aide? >> well, i'm so two minds about this, howard. when you put it in the latter terms, the place i worked as a congressional aide, it's brutal. the idea as you've seen on the clips, let alone seeing it live that day, the halls i used to walk, the rotunda, the speaker's office, places that should be of some sacred level, defiled by idiot rioters who just took over the congress, i mean, it's very hard to get that out of your mind and it should be hard to get that out of your mind. it should be a lingering image and it's something we have to prosecute. on the other hand, this gets to the essence of the trial is that the right remedy for a president who has already been removed from office by the people and that becomes a more fine constitutional question. and of that, i won't defend

president trump because of the role he played. but i can see why good-minded people of good will thought it was vital to convict the president. howie: well, everybody knew from the start, media, politicians, everybody, that this would end in acquittal for the second time for former president trump. do you think most of the mead consider decided to use this trial to try to damage donald trump knowing there wouldn't be 17 republican senators actually ended up being seven who defected and voted to convict. >> well, in that sense it absolutely fits the pattern ever since election day 2016 of the press trying to destroy donald trump. you know, i often thought that if the press was covering the trial were senators and voted, there's no question the president would have been convicted. i suspect 99% of the media covering the trial would have voted to convict from the mainstream media. that fits the pattern of the press. that doesn't matter, howard. that is the long-standing bias

republicans and president trump always have known about. it just continues. howie: do you think the press unfairly blew off the arguments being made not just by some republican senators but by the former president's lawyers that there is an important process argument here that he's out of office, he's a private citizen and therefore even if you thought what his role was terrible, that he should not have been convict inned a post presidency impeachment trial? >> my favorite example of that was the washington post referred to the republican vote against conviction because of the constitutional provisions that he's out of office as a constitutional technicality. i mean, if it's not constitutional, it ain't technical. it's fundamental. to dismiss that, that vote as a technicality i thought was just absurd and a sign of the bias the press walked into the trial with where there should only be one result and that's conviction and anybody who wouldn't vote to convict they thought was illegit

note how they cared out their judgment. howie: president biden didn't have much to say about the impeachment trial. he was asked about his plans to watch the trial. >> will you watch the trial? are you going to watch the trial? >> i am not -- look, i told you before. i have a job. my job is to keep people -- we've already lost over 450,000 people. we're going to lose a whole lot more if we don't act and act decisively and quickly. howie: now, biden did say last night, this was a sad chapter, that the substance of the charge was proven and let's unend this uncivil war. is it smart for him to not really engage and focus on covid and the economy and other issues? >> if his audience is his left wing progressive base it's smart to try to have it both ways, that he's a man whose soul is for unity even though there's loopholes in the soul it seems

and not to weigh much in on the trial and let the senate do it. if his soul is for unity, the smarter move would have been to tell the senate don't do this, he's out of office. our job is to face forward. we have too much work on our plate. this is divisive. let's not do it. he chose the former, not the latter. when he says unity, i think that's just typical political spin, judge him by what he does, not by what he says. howie: finally, with some conservative news outlets saying donald trump's legacy was tarnished, could that change when donald trump's breaks his silence and is out there and a aggressively defends himself and gets involved in republican parties. >> i think forever there will be two sides to donald trump. one is the policy side, the other is the personal side. you can't forget or turn your back on the tens of millions of people whose lives were improved, particularly

unemployed black and hispanic workers who had the lowest unemployment rates ever. these are meaningful improvements to the lives of tens of millions. i think there's another side, that is his character, his personality, the fact that he brought the pro testifiers to washington -- protesters to washington that day. he introduced nitro to glicerin. howie: thanks for being with us this sunday. next on media buzz, how is the trump trial playing out there in the country? frank luntzs is on deck.

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that. howie: and joining us now is pollster frank luntz. how of badly is america divided right now? could that change with donald trump's acquittal by getting both sides to move on? >> that's the key. and in a word, the american people are saying enough. on the democratic side they're saying enough of donald trump, i don't want to hear him, i don't want to see him, i just want him to go away. on the republican side, they're saying enough of this witch hunt which is what our focus group respondents call it. on both sides, they desperately want to move to the next step, they want to see what's coming over the next few weeks, the next few months and the most critical point is, i don't see a way to bring people together. i'm a pollster. i'm a communications guy. i don't know the language that unites people because quite frankly, howie, in every one of these focus groups i've done, every one of them, the moment i mention donald trump's name the whole thing blows up. and that has not changed.

in fact, it's worse today than it was even on election day. so there's no one out there -- it's got to stop. howie: so how important in terms of shaping public opinion was all of the video played at the trial, the carnage and the destruction at the capitol, as compared to, say, the media coverage and commentary? >> there was a lesson in this. the lesson is the commentary doesn't matter if the video be strays that. and -- betrays that. the video was so strong against donald trump, much stronger in the video the democratic house managers played than the republicans in response. that 13 minutes of what happened in washington, people looked at it. i talked to congressmen an senators who won't say this publicly but they looked at it and they said oh, my god it was worse than i thought, there was more violence, more extreme and the anger toward the president among people who are undecided moved them in the direction of

wanting a conviction. and that's why a majority of americans, not a majority of viewers but majority of americans wanted a conviction. what gave them the proof was the video, seeing it happening, virtually live in our homes. howie: it was chilling video. it doesn't prove that donald trump incited the violence, although the violence was awful, especially to see it, the full panaploy of it. at the same time, does it seem that the media very much wanted conviction and doesn't particularly care that the president was acquitted for the second time? >> well, the media was angry that the president was not convicted. and i watched them, how they behaved with the language of mitch mcconnell who voted for you acquittal and still suggested that donald trump is responsible. that i think is going to be the challenge for the gop. the single biggest impact i'm looking at is what does this

people for them moving forward, what does it mean for the republican party in 2022 and 2024. quite frankly, the party is so harshly divided right now that i think the prospects over the coming weeks and months are not good. howie: well, since you brought that up, much of the media are also castigating the 43 republican senators who voted to acquit former president trump. so does that negative barrage tarnish the party and will it remain a trump party? >> i'm not sure. i've always tried to tell the truth on your show, tried to be candid and i don't know whether the party moves on from donald trump. he still has a hold on the significant number of them and a significant number have had enough of him and frankly the person who is in the most challenge right now is kevin mccarthy, my friend, the house leader, because he cannot win a majority if the party is split. he has to find some way to get trump voters to vote republican

and those who used to vote republican, suburban voters, women, upper middle class, he has to bring them back and it's very difficult. this is a media show. and i think that what viewers should be most upset over is the glee in punishing donald trump, you can hear it in their commentary, you can hear it in their interview was the witnesses and it is wrong that we should be honest brokers, we should ask tough but fair questions. we should give people the chance to give a full answer and that's not what's happening on these shows. i did two interviews late last night. in neither, neither show was the interviewer interested in presenting exactly what happened. they kept on beating up on republicans and they called it a technicality. they voted for donald trump, they voted for acquittal on atechnicality. howie, the constitution is not a technicality. the constitution is the law. if members voted because of the constitution, then that's exactly how they should have

voted. we should give them kudos. we should applaud them for doing this. and the idea that the constitution's a technicality, it's insane to me. howie: well, the media showing their emotion on this, i think, does help to undermine any idea of being a fair arbiter. great to see you. still to come, how some media outlets don't much care about the deepening sex scandal that's rocking the anti-trump lincoln project. new projects means new project managers.

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howie: the founders of the lynn kong project frequently appeared on msnbc for one reason, bashing donald trump. >> he's a immediate threat to the country. howie: and that includes the project's co-founder, john weaver. >> we're in the middle of a

pandemic that is much worse than it needs to be because of his malfeasance. howie: an ap report said the leaders were told of specific sexual harassment allegations against weaver last june, before the new york times documented the sexually explicit messages to 21 men, one of them 14 years old, with promises of professional help and the group took no action. rick wilson called the ap story a hit piece from trump world. weaver said he is gay, acknowledged the allegations and apoll jived-apologized. once the allegations surfaced, lincoln founders appeared without being asked about them until this interview with co-founder george conway. >> i didn't know john very well. i only spoke to him a couple times on the phone early on in the lincoln project. howie: even on thursday night, cnn's anderson cooper didn't ask

conway about the allegations. in short, msnbc loved the idea of using disinfected republicans to hold donald trump accountable but isn't interested in holding the lincoln project accountable. jennifer horn of said after talking to some of his alleged victims, when i spoke to one of the founders to raise objections and concerns, i was yelled at and lied to. lincoln project posted screen shots of her private twitter messages in an effort to embarrass her. that's not only a violation of privacy but conway said it may violate federal law. steve schmidt has resigned, saying he wants to make room for a female board member. he said he didn't know about the allegations and he detests john weaver because he remembers the shame and depression he felt at age 13 when a camp medic touched

him inappropriately. the lincoln project has now called for an outside investigation which is badly needed. but how much interest will that generate among some media outlets which were mainly invested in the group's efforts to oust donald trump? and an underdate on a story we've been following, dean mckay says he regrets a deadline mistake when he said intent doesn't matter in using racial slurs, this after a veteran reporter was pushed out over the using the n word with a group of students. of course, intent matters when we're talking about language in journalism, said mckay who acted against mcneil after 150 staffers signed a protest letter. the n word, says the paper's first african-american editor, is a vile one. i've been called it. it appears in our pages and will no doubt appear in our of pages again. the paper spiked the column on the controversy. it was leaked to the new york post. intent matters, stephens wrote and, quote, the times has never been previously shy about citing

racial slurs in order to make a point. that's it for this edition of media buzz. i'm howard kurtz. happy valentine's day. we're out of time. i'll say thanks for watching. see you back here next sunday.

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eric: top communication's aide for the biden white house stepping down in the middle of some controversy. deputy white house press secretary tj resigning after it came to light that he threatened a reporter who was asking questions for a story about his relationship with another washington journalist. hello, everyone, welcome to america's news headquarters here in the fox news channel. i'm eric sean. hi, arthel. arthel: hello, everyone, i'm arthel neville, the white house suspended for one week after the allegations first came to light on friday during pushback from