Skip to main content

tv   Media Buzz  FOX News  December 12, 2021 8:00am-9:00am PST

8:00 am
howard: howdy january 6, the day we watched in horror on our television become so politically radioactive and how much of the media contributed to these radically different views of the capitol riots? and appeals court panel ruled against donald trump's account to block congress from getting records related to the attack. wall-to-wall television on the other cable news network's and the battle it-- pitting mark meadows against the january 6 committee also drew hour by hour coverage. the subpoena battle with
8:01 am
the former white house and-- advisor indicted. media conservatives dismissed the probe as a partisan exercise by democrats designed to damage transcend media liberal say that party is refusing to cooperate with the inquiry and it's a vital shot object. in the whole thing becomes a boring beltway process story and much of the public tunes out. the abundance and the politicians have remarkable ability to polarize any issue, even one that strikes at the heart of our democracy. that's a shame. i'm howard kurtz and this is "media buzz". ♪♪ howard: ahead, glenn greenwald on assisting the pressure ease up on joe biden because they are helping donald trump and the forces of darkness or something plus a jussie somollett guilty verdict and how his former champions are downplaying or even ignoring it and just as the
8:02 am
media was making a huge deal about a book by mark models which drew criticism from his former boss meadows was subpoenaed. initially turning over some records and agreed to testify and now says he won't cooperate and is suing. that's created a huge paypal coverage along with the court ruling against donald trump. >> very likely there's communications that could well provide a smoking gun because ultimate unanswered question here has always been really that watergate formulation, what did the president know and when did he know it? >> if people believe around the president that that information will be made public, nobody can ever be honest with the president moving forward. that's dangerous to national security, in my opinion as to what we are likely watching is a pathetic attempt by meadows to get back into the good graces of his former boss. >> almost like he's virtual signaling to donald trump, i'm going to sue nancy pelosi because he was put in
8:03 am
the doghouse for a couple of days. >> why would you play ball with him at all? >> i can tell you because certain nonprivileged communication, i think, what they will find is that no one in the white house had any advance knowledge of anything that was going to happen on that particular day. howard: joining us now to analyze the coverage, mollie hemingway fox news contributor and in new york, liz claman, anchor of the claimant countdown on foxbusiness airing at 3:00 p.m. eastern. when an appellate judge ruled against turning over the documents, it's obviously headed to the supreme court and there was an immediate explosion as we just heard someone on msnbc making analogies to watergate. >> it's good to cover what's happening in the court related to january 6, that commission and what we haven't seen is good coverage of that at all or the legal battle and play with executive privilege one of the issues, but there's other things going on as well for instance
8:04 am
there's all sorts of preceding court cases it dealing with whether congressional committees can cepeda documents if there is no legislative purpose associated with it and there's-- they are not even pretending there is an associated with their commission. howard: oversight? >> oversight different from legislative purpose, but also they are doing this wide swath like trying to get everyone's information. they are going after telecommunication companies to get them to give records and the also have those doing this that we can't just do it for the sake of exposure. we had that back in the day so there's all sorts of prompts including it's supposed to be a bipartisan committee but nancy pelosi kicks republicans off. they don't have a ranking member. they are falsely presenting liz cheney as the ranking member when she was appointed by a democrat so there's major problems with the legality of this committee that has not been covered by that media.
8:05 am
howard: put on to anti- trump republicans. does it look like the nixon case tapes forcing them to use turnover secret white house tapes the difference is this president is already out of office and it's not a criminal investigation, is it inquiry. >> i think molly is right that it's very important for them media to focus on these types of developments because presidents is a set or because they are certainly solidified. you have that cord of appeals basically saying that in essence congressional oversight here does not give the president to trump any residual power over notes and things like that, so that was the court case there that was very important, but i think the media is completely ignoring one possibility that's important and that is the supreme court and while yes a lot of trump's attorneys may believe they don't have a chance if it goes to the supreme court, their strategy is to play out
8:06 am
the clock and of those processes are very very onerous. they take a long time and let's not forget there is a five a voting bloc in the supreme court that's conservative, three of whom donald trump appointed and they could simply say let's just hear it and that only plays down the clock further. i think any vote comparison with watergate is completely incorrect because you had a prosecutor versus an acting sitting president, nixon and it didn't ruling nixon's favor. he did not get that rare fried grant, so it doesn't help donald trump. howard: also references of smoking gun. i agree with you, molly whether you think the inquiry is partisan or not, it's legitimate to cover, but should the volume be cranked up every time there's a procedural development or a push scene-- subpoena goes out? >> it's not up for debate if it's partisan or not. there's not a single republican appointed member on that committee, only democrat
8:07 am
appointed members so that makes the legitimacy of the committee in question because when they formed the committee, it requires republican appointed members and they have to consult republican consulted members for subpoenas so i think it's something that should be covered, just should not be covered if they are helping out the committee with their effort so my just covering what's actually happening and part of that has been a larger context of not just in terms of what happened on january 6, at that riot, but how the media covered all the riots we experienced because so much damage to the country hurting a lot of people and the media didn't seem to care about that downplaying those even with the billions of dollars in damage and dozens of people killed, attacks on the white house, federal courthouses and those issues weren't amplified, but hear this one riot is used for political gain, it seems howard: does mark meadows who faces criminal contempt charges starting tomorrow from the house , former colleagues, fascinating story because as i said he was cooperating and
8:08 am
turned over documents and cell phone records and now he's no longer and is filed a suit and is led to media speculation about motives and whether or not he's being pressured by donald trump. is that a fair storyline? >> we know what we can see. we do know that president trump said he was annoyed with mark meadows who in his book in meadows a book came out and said that president to trump a new head of the debate against joe biden that he had tested positive for covid and didn't seem to show much regard or perhaps interest in worrying about spreading covid. listen, if he feels that he went over the line in his book and suddenly he saw his former boss getting very angry about it and now he says i know i gave 6000 different documents and i know i gave up some of my phone records ect., now i don't want to anymore, he doesn't really have a strong leg to stand on, but more importantly to the first topic howie, you have this court of appeals
8:09 am
saying donald trump doesn't get residual protection of executive privilege, so why should mark meadows? howard: your thoughts on the coverage of meadows? >> first of all, the story mark meadows wrote about where they false positive tests and then an anonymous report that president trump was annoyed with that. i think the reality is that many constitutional lawyers are very concerned about the civil rights violation perpetrated by the january 6, committee. the argument he made in his lawsuit in my view is the strongest one that's been made thus far that there's an illegitimacy to the committee because of how nancy pelosi blew it up by not having a republican appointed member, how they are going after people for the sole sake of exposing them, which is we have supreme court precedents that it's in violation what we think is okay for congress. howard: do you think the media in covering this investigation into this important and dark day in our country's history are giving any weight at all to these counter arguments one by executive privilege and number two i'm a they just sort of moved on-- remember there was a
8:10 am
lot of flak back-and-forth because republicans didn't want to go along with a bipartisan commission and so forth, but i can't disagree with you on the question of making the committee, but do you think the process of treating the committee as if it is coming from a very dark place? >> they are doing it all the time and what's amazing is mark meadows is one thing, donald trump is one thing, but they are going after hundreds of people for the crime of first amendment protected activities. they are asking for a ton of records for people who did nothing wrong and aren't accused of doing anything wrong who merely applied for permits to have peaceful protests on january 6. they are going back to april, 2020, and the media aren't concerted anyway even though this is a horrific presidents if you care about the first amendment-- howard: isn't that a fact gathering process to find out anyone connected to these to piece together what happened? >> the fbi has already said there was no central preplanning and that's the fbi, which
8:11 am
had much better capabilities than nancy pelosi and her team of hand-picked people, but going back to april, 2020, this isn't about trying to find out what happened on january 6. it's about going after political opponents and breaking every norm, every rule, every precedents and the idea we have about how we should treat people for first amended protected activity. >> i would just simply say if you reverse the tables and you turn them , very hard to believe that if mark meadows were in the party that it had the majority of control that they wouldn't be the first to go after every single document involving a democrat. i'm just simply saying if the tables were turned, molly, they would do the exact same thing in hard to believe they would not. >> what we see here has never happened before with our congress. howard: meanwhile, a lot of coverage at new york attorney general leticia james suddenly decided she went to subpoena donald trump in a civil investigation and by the way she's not running for governor.
8:12 am
of course, that will get a lot of attention as well even though it's a very different nature. let me get a break here, i head glenn greenwald on journalists-- comments that journalists should ease up on joe biden. ♪♪ eed is a bike and a full tank of gas. their only friend? the open road. i have friends. [ chuckles ] well, he may have friends, but he rides alone. that's jeremy, right there! we're literally riding together. he gets touchy when you talk about his lack of friends. can you help me out here? no matter why you ride, progressive has you covered with protection starting at $79 a year. well, we're new friends. to be fair. eh, still.
8:13 am
8:14 am
xfinity rewards are our way of thanking you just for being with us. enjoy rewards like sing family fun nights! rent sing for $1, then belt out all your favorite tunes from the movie with sing karaoke. plus, see sing 2 in theaters with buy-one-get-one free fandango tickets. join over a million members by signing up for free on the xfinity app. our thanks. your rewards.
8:15 am
howard: media don't know exactly what happened during the two hour video call between joe biden and vladimir putin over russia's amassing of troops at the ukraine border, but hundreds have vastly different views. >> meeting with putin i was very straightforward there was no minced words. it was polite, but i made it very clear. if in fact he invades
8:16 am
ukraine, there will be severe consequences. >> joe, you are the president, not a concierge at a five-star hotel. you don't need to accommodate vladimir putin. >> i think biden's done a good job here of not only communicating to him what the consequences would be economically to begin with for russia, but also rallying all of europe. >> oh, biden is weak, he's not standing up against vladimir putin. you hear that constantly including on this channel from republicans and the rhetoric is getting hotter and crazier and more intensive from reality. howard: molly, president biden made a big deal in the media made a big deal about the warnings to russian leader about economic sanctions. some critics are slamming him for not doing enough. >> the situation with ukraine and russia amassing troops on the border with ukraine is a very serious issue. it's important to media cover it, but i think you have seen too much of the media being too critical of joe biden, being too eager to have
8:17 am
an armed conflict with russia, without thinking through the consequences of that. the situation with ukraine really is you complicated. it's a divided country with portions of the country that would love to ally with nato and other portions that are very close to russia, russian speaking on the border there and a good strong us posture might be due-- to negotiate a way to think through ukraine's future understanding that it's right there on the border with russia and we are not seeing that we just see double lot of marching towards, he heated bellicose rhetoric. howard: we saw the consequences between two nuclear armed powers, liz and the reality is the us is not going to war or were a country in that area where it's part of the soviet and putin has already seized crimea, so probe pundit biden-- sees me pro biden pundits are saying joe biden is doing what he can with the tools he has available.
8:18 am
>> "u.s. news & world report" did a piece just the other day after this that biden and putin had and they said you actually believe it or not are starting to see some wiggle room and vladimir putin who personally-- can we really believe anything from putin, but he faced a new cooperation saying within a week perhaps in days the kremlin would present a sort of idea of how they could get together with the white house and work on overarching security issues. however, what critics are saying when it comes to biden and this isn't just roger wicker who's of course a republican come about you having tim kaine the democratic senator saying when you take any kind of armed effort and troop movement off the table, then what are we talking about here, it doesn't really speak to the power that we might have. again, we are trying to avoid a hot war, but strategically ukraine truly is important. howard: molly, this is a
8:19 am
national view jim garrity what he called a word of praise for president biden. tucker carlson as we just heard it said some conservatives here and elsewhere are trying to push biden into a senseless war with russia. when you say some people have not thought it through do you think they really want this military action or is it just sort of television bluster? >> does seem we in this country have had a portion of our foreign policy establishment that seeks intervention and when we get out of one conflict they are looking for another. they should think through the consequences. one of the problems we had in the previous intervention is we didn't think through where it served our national interest and where we would exit. people say we are going to war and you hope that's right, but you heard senator wicker talk about the nuclear-- literal nuclear option, but i want to point out how different our media coverages versus the previous president who actually did have a tough posture towards russia, who did ramp up
8:20 am
our own energy reserves and our own energy posture relative to what russia had whereas biden helps them out with their nord stream 2 pipeline and gets rid of our own energy independence and yet we don't hear that same hysteria that we heard with the previous president where everything he did was put through the context of him supposedly being a traitor who had stolen 2016 election by colluding with russia. howard: i think the media consensus would be an molly would obviously disagree that model trump openly sought a good constructive relationship with vladimir putin. he got a lot of criticism for example at the famous helsinki summit and yet it's kind of easy is it for some press to posture about getting tough when getting tough can be difficult when you are just dealing with a mean look even in a straw-- small country we can be overextended and then caught in civil war, but getting tough with russia is a bit complicated. >> well, one of the conundrums was that
8:21 am
people couldn't understand the difference between terms rhetoric and wet say for example he did at helsinki and then the actual policy. they had 52 policy moves when it came to russia, many of them were extremely tough sanctions on both vladimir putin, putin's banks and cronies and i say they, i mean, the trump administration put down these things and it hurt russia. at the business channel we call this very closely every single step of the way because when their banks are unable to conduct banking and financial transactions with western countries, that's a big problem, so here biden is piling on and kind of taking the baton from crump saying we will do the same thing. there will be terrible consequences. biden may think twice because he knows what the trump administration policy moves did to him and it wasn't pretty. howard: the story is not over by any means. liz claman, mollie hemingway, thank you. the white house is
8:22 am
spinning reports about the economy getting better. is it working? ♪♪ can't wait to unwrap. ♪♪ joy. fully. ♪♪
8:23 am
8:24 am
♪ christmas music ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ if your dry eye symptoms keep coming back, what?! no! over the counter eye drops typically work by lubricating the eyes and may provide temporary relief. xiidra works differently, targeting inflammation that can cause dry eye disease. it can provide lasting relief. xiidra is the only fda-approved non-steroid eye drop specifically for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. one drop in each eye, twice a day. don't use if you are allergic to xiidra. common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye, and unusual taste sensation. don't touch container tip to your eye or any surface. after using xiidra wait 15 minutes before reinserting contacts. ♪♪♪
8:25 am
this holiday, ask your doctor about xiidra. umph! howard: the headline in the washington monthly drew lots of attention for talking of the president's efforts economy, biden boom and no one has noticed yet. >> washington monthly reports, this is a biden boom and no one has noticed yet. you can call it a boom or you can call it a biden boom, you can even call a date not trump boom. howard: but, the magazine pieces written by rob schapiro, undersecretary congress for bill clinton and advise the obama administration. gemina snack-- joining us now, kevin corke. there's also a headline, calm in the hilt that biden is delivering second fastest recovery in history. so does quoting these headlines make it sound like these are pieces by journalists? >> it really does not
8:26 am
because i think most people sort of feel like it depends on who the writer is and that's always the key. it would be like if kevin hassett who ran cea under president trump wrote a piece in the "wall street journal". the average person may not know who he is, but inside the beltway we know and that sort of shapes i think the way the coverage may be viewed. howard: i think you have to say this is by a person who former strategists worked on the hill and current you know "politico". >> exactly. howard: there's been good economic news on unemployment and also bad news on inflation but it follows a report that got buzzing in our business from cnn saying that senior white house officials are having private meetings to shape coverage of the economy. excuse me, doesn't every white house, doesn't every president do that? it's called the spin. >> it's called spin and this is my fourth administration and i can tell you each and everyone sort of of does this, maybe to the old
8:27 am
iva hauer-- eisenhower executive office building to make sure you understand. we want to show you some charts and graphs, but the fact is it's what we call working the referees to use a sports analogy as they are trying to give you more information about maybe you aren't thinking about this or maybe we aren't explaining well enough hoping they can shape the way things are covered, but at the end of the day this is not novel. it happens in each and every administration. howard: trump, obama and they are entitled to get their point of view out, but the question becomes do some journalists just swallowed the spin hole and repeat it or do they factored into their coverage? >> you would help the more experienced journalist would be circumspect and skeptical because that's our job to be skeptical of government, but unfortunately i think we noticed during the trump years more advocacy journalism unless a real skepticism in the way it should be in the press corps so you will get some people who will simply take it hook, line and sinker's while others hopefully more experienced journalist will tap the brakes. howard: that may be the understatement of the year. joe biden as you know,
8:28 am
kevin, does few tv interviews, few interviews of any kind, but there he was friday with jimmy fallon. take a look. >> we gave you a standing ovation because i said here he is bringing class back, classy guy and you are bringing class back to the office. howard: that was in reference to the kennedy center honors and jimmy fallon did not even as one semi- challenging question. it was all like how did you feel when you first went to the white house and so on. look, it's jimmy fallon and it's a comedy show i get it but biden seems to prefer this kind of interview to talking to people like you? >> he's a smart to do so because i think he is not necessarily a guy who can avoid the gas the way he could maybe years ago and i think it's fair to say the white house wants to protect him, but when you do things like this it does raise questions, which is one, why aren't you talking to the american people, really talking to the american people. number two, if you are only going in friendly venues jimmy fallon or maybe the occasional appearance with one of your buddies at cnn it
8:29 am
makes people wonder, what are you hiding and what you not telling us because people in this environment, how we, where there's more news than ever, they want hard evidence and they want you to communicate them as president. howard: i have no problem he can do fallon, stephen colbert, but also do some real interviews i think it hurts him because he doesn't get as much as a president could. kevin corke, great to see you. next, "washington post" columnist says joe biden is getting coverage as bad or worse than donald trump and that journalists are undermining democracy. glenn greenwald coming out. ♪♪ ♪ rock music ♪ >> man: so i'm not taking any chances when something happens to it. so when my windshield cracked... my friend recommended safelite autoglass. they came right to me, with expert service where i needed it. ♪ rock music ♪ >> man: that's service i can trust...
8:30 am
no matter what i'm hauling. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪
8:31 am
i may have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. or psoriatic arthritis. but we are so much more. we're team players and artists. designers and do-it-yourselfers. parents and friends. if joint pain is getting in the way of who you are, it's time to talk to your doctor about enbrel. enbrel helps relieve joint pain, and helps stop permanent joint damage. plus enbrel helps skin get clearer in psoriatic arthritis. ask your doctor about enbrel, so you can get back to your true self. play ball! enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and blood disorders and allergic reactions have occurred. tell your doctor if you've been someplace where fungal infections are common. or if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if you have persistent fever, bruising, bleeding or paleness. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu.
8:32 am
visit enbrel.com to see how your joint damage could progress. enbrel. eligible patients may pay as little as $5 per month. [uplifting music playing] ♪ i had a dream that someday ♪ ♪ i would just fly, fly away ♪ howard: hot media debate over this question, has president biden got an coverage that's just as bad as or even worse than president trump? seems far-fetched but liberal "washington post" columnist contacted a firm whose algorithm say it's for-- true.
8:33 am
and he writes like colleagues in the media are serving as accessories to the murder of democracy. >> so, we are as negative as a collective media on joe biden, if not more so than we were to donald trump at a time when he was trying to overthrow democracy and i think that is a tremendous indictment of our whole industry. howard: i spoke earlier from brazil with glenn greenwald, pulitzer prize-winning journalists. glenn greenwald, welcome. >> great to be with you. howard: let's start with the premise, your intelligence against artificial intelligence, has president biden gotten coverage as bad as or worse than president rob in the last four months compared to trump last year in your view? >> this attack to create that narrative that somehow the media was almost biased in favor of president frump and against biden or that biden got worse coverage than trump reminds me of the injunction which is
8:34 am
that the pardo-- party told you to reject the evidence of your own eyes and ears, the overarching mandate and we are supposed to forget the first year of the trump presidency was this of accusations that trumps a traitor, beholden to vladimir putin, subject to black male control his election was illegitimate because he conspired illegally with the kremlin. they flooded our politics with stories that were not just a negative, but devastatingly so against president trump and i defy eight anyone to bind anything remotely like that when it comes to their coverage of joe biden. they were critical it of discrete policies like how he handled his withdrawal from afghanistan may be inflation, but nothing remotely near the victory all they spewed at president trump. howard: that's the point. i've written about these studies with biden dropping in the pulling he can't control his own party versus the attacks
8:35 am
on trump you just described. let's say for the sake of argument it's true and day and it writes my colleagues in the media are serving as accessories to the murder of democracy. what's your reaction to that? >> i think this is the key point to understand any idea, behavior over the last five years, which is that many of them meaning employees of the liberal wing of the corporate media really have become convinced that trump is an unprecedented never before seen threat to american democracy. he's a fascist, almost like a hitler -like figure and that it's therefore immoral to extend to him the same treatment as the media would extend to any other president because every other president previously might be on the right or the left, but at least they represent and believe in american democracy whereas trump wants to overturn democracy and implement a passage dictatorship. that's really what they believe, so when she believe that it almost does become rational. dana thinks the media
8:36 am
shouldn't treat the two sides the same and if they do, they are accessories to the distraction of democracy. howard: even if you accept that promise at that point you are asking journalist to become activists, what he calls partisans for democracy and he made it explicit that journalists should go easier on president biden to avoid helping donald trump because he's this horrible awful human being and at that point then doesn't that plan to the last four years and why the mainstream media as a whole have lost the confidence of half the country? >> absolutely. you know, it's been a long-standing trope on the right that the american media is biased in favor of liberalism and the democratic party. rush limbaugh and lots of commentators on the right called it the liberal media and i personally never bought into that and never actually believed it was true. i actually do think though, that the trump years radically transform how the media sees itself and this
8:37 am
explicit admission is almost positive that they now do see themselves as activists on behalf of the party the democratic party that they believe is pro-democracy because it's justified since you have a party of anti- democracy. howard: for journalists to say that journalists shouldn't be so rough on joe biden over inflation or legislative gridlock or afghanistan or whatever, it seems like a call to tilted the playing field for as you say this higher purpose, that is we must all come together and deal with this threat. it's fine for people to do that and dana is that opinion columnists but to call in the press in general, reporters in general to do that seems like a pretty blatant invitation to tilt the playing field. >> this is been my position, one of my main views for the last five years. it's the reason why people mistakenly think i've changed my eye-- ideology and become sort of right wing advocate.
8:38 am
i'm not there, believer in journalistic values and the role reporters served in society and my concern is that they have corrupted so many institutions in the name of stopping trump that they really do believe there are no limits ethically or otherwise anything that should be done in the name of stopping him including spreading conspiracy theories like maximus russia views that have no connection to the truth and that concern of mine is exactly what you expressed which is now there explicitly they view themselves as activists and not journalists because they believe the situation is so grave that it requires that. howard: i've read a thousand tweets of people accusing you of changing your views. one other topic, nbc news has hired as a full-time correspondent from pbs and she will still host washington week, despite observations by some that she's not completely un- objective reporter, let me show the audience a question she asked president trump and one to present
8:39 am
biden. >> on the campaign trail you called yourself a nationalist and some saw that is in bold and only white nationalist and now people-- >> that's a racist question. >> especially black voters who deem republicans running on race line about critical race theory and they are worried democrats don't have an effective way to push back on the. howard: what is your take on nbc's hiring move here? >> she's a perfect example of someone who barely hides the fact that she regards her view is pushing the democratic party only to the extent she was them to be better at winning elections. that's the only criticism she will make as she was them to do better winning. i think on some level i almost would rather have a journalist like that who barely hides the fact that she's a partisan democrat than have the ongoing fraud that they continue to be objective. there are still good journalists working in the media who try to be as objective as possible, but nbc and msnbc, cnn and to a lot
8:40 am
of extent other news outlets have become arms of the democratic party. howard: and glenn greenwald, thank to see you. thanks for joining us. >> good to be with you. howard: after the break, jussie somollett is guilty of staging a hate crime and some of his former champions are staying quiet. m an actual neuroscientist. and i love the science behind neuriva plus. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. ♪ ♪ just two pills for all day pain relief. aleve it, and see what's possible. and also try alevex topical pain relief. [ joe ] my teeth were a mess. i had a lot of pain. as far as my physical health, my body was telling me you got to do something. and so i came to clearchoice. your mouth is the gateway to your body.
8:41 am
joe's treatment plan was replacing the teeth with dental implants from clearchoice. [ joe ] clearchoice has changed my life for the better. it's given me my health back. there's an amazing life out there if you do something for your health now.
8:42 am
8:43 am
if you used shipgo this whole thing wouldn't be a thing. yeah, dad! i don't want to deal with this. oh, you brought your luggage to the airport. that's adorable. with shipgo shipping your luggage before you fly you'll never have to wait around here again. like ever. that can't be comfortable though. shipgo.com the smart, fast, easy way to travel. howard: it was a bogus hate crime that rocked the media world and it took a chicago jury
8:44 am
just one day to find a jussie smollett guilty of a five to six counts of staging a fake attack. two years ago the story exploded. >> there are a lot of questions, but i know jussie smollett is a really really good guy and i just want justice served. howard: don 11 was a sympathetic to jussie smollett when the actor claimed he had been beaten up by trump supporters, but as jussie smollett texted this week lemmon testified him that police didn't believe his story. >> i know him and he told me in his own words what he said happened. howard: lemmon conceded some people in the black and gay communities were skeptical and said this when charges were filed. >> he even lied to a lot of people. if it's not true, including me and that's not cool. howard: joining us now from new york mercedes a fox news analyst and dawn lemmon may have been personally snookered by jussie
8:45 am
smollett over this fake attack, but when he covered the verdict, which is good to should have disclosed again that they were friendly and had been texting at the time? >> obviously a pretty sticky situation for him. initially he did duke's close-- initially he disclosed they were friends and sure as journalists you want to sort of do full disclosure the parameters of what you are about to say especially when you have such a large following, i mean, we all have that issue for all of us. if you are going to speak publicly of a journalistic integrity and make sure people understand from your vantage point what you are expressing on-air it. howard: that's a great way to put it. now, msnbc joy read at the time of the fake attack remember there was a rope put on jussie smollett which actually paid for, tweeted nooses never really disappeared for a specific terror, but she didn't so much as mentioned the verdict hours after it happened
8:46 am
and neither did that msnbc shows at eight, or nine or 10 or 11, how does it suddenly become non- news when jussie smollett is convicted of faking a hate crime? >> as a defense attorney this is your worst nightmare. those that can really influence the integrity of the process and that's why individuals that have a huge platform have to really be careful because words matter. what they say matters whether that has some influence in a jury, some influence in the investigation, that's when it becomes problematic and maybe this is really a lesson learned for all of those who did rush to judgment and frankly, it's understandable they would because the allegations were so incredibly heinous that he was attacked in the middle of the night with the news put around his neck and all these terrible things that had been said to him and all of this is understandable that there was a russian individuals came forward, but yes, maybe now it's a lesson for everyone to really don't judge a book by the
8:47 am
cover and really say to those that if a crime occurred let law enforcement take this and really do the investigation. don't say or do anything that could influence it because even during the testimony jussie smollett said he knew from his text message to dawn lemmon at the police started to doubt his story well, that's really problematic for lemmon if somehow law enforcement decides that the information was not public, should not of been disclosed to jussie smollett because at that point he was a person of interest to. howard: i agree with you. when this first happened you know chicago police were investigating. of course you had to reported involving this television actor. i wasn't sure what happens, but you know the media often predicts or forecast the outcome of trials and sometimes they are wrong, kyle rittenhouse for example but in this case it seemed like such a slamdunk with the two brothers testifying that he paid them and they orchestrated the attack
8:48 am
and he bought the rope and they scouted out the location in chicago the day before, makes me wonder like why did this guy go to trial and not just plead to something. >> well, frankly because his story he had already gone on such a public way to disclose what had happened to him that he was a victim, said it repeatedly surrounding himself with a really good lawyers who said the same thing in public , so all of this things really at that point jussie smollett really thought to himself he didn't have a choice but to go to court. it was really a game changer being on the stand like i know there's talk about there being on appeal, but he took the stand and obviously the jury didn't believe him and having taken and the stand that just really kills it even further of any chance of a future. howard: donald trump initially said it was a horrible attack because reacting like the rest of us and then he said it was embarrassment when the jussie smollett story fell apart and here's what he said after the
8:49 am
verdict. >> this was a absolute con job he was a con man and he wanted to try to get sympathy so he could have his contract renewed for his ridiculous television series is. howard: now, joe biden at the time tweeted what happened to jussie smollett was not to be tolerated in the country and kamala harris tweeted he was one of the kinda small gentle human beings i know with an attempted modern-day lynching. does the president have responsibility to say something. we have not heard from either of them personally. >> i mean, it goes back to everyone's reaction, i think you're looking at the circumstances and the allegations of course people were horrified. they made comments obviously they didn't know at the time that it was a hoax. who could have thought that someone that doesn't have a criminal history come from a stable family would-- well-known, kind, lovely , talented and made it all up cracks
8:50 am
it's so extreme and outrageous and it's understandable why people had that initial reaction and this is just goes back to lessons learned. step back and say law enforcement has a process. howard: i didn't know and i was fooled like everyone else. mercedes, thank you for joining us this sunday. >> my pleasure. thank you. howard: still becomes some news about chris wallace, newsmax boots a white house reporter and a lot more. stick around for the buzz prescriptions strong. we're managing type 2 diabetes... ...and heart risk. we're working up a sweat before coffee. and saying, “no thanks...” ...to a boston cream. jardiance is a once-daily pill that can reduce the risk of cardiovascular death for adults who also have known heart disease. so, it could help save your life from a heart attack or stroke. and jardiance lowers a1c. jardiance can cause serious side effects including... ...dehydration, genital yeast or urinary tract infections,
8:51 am
and sudden kidney problems. ketoacidosis is a serious side effect that may be fatal. a rare, but life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away... ...if you have symptoms of this bacterial infection, ...ketoacidosis, or an allergic reaction, ...and don't take it if you're on dialysis. taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. lower a1c and lower risk of a fatal heart attack? we're on it. we're on it. with jardiance. ask your doctor about jardiance.
8:52 am
8:53 am
howard: time to raise the clock. we all just learned chris wallace is leaving fox news at his sunday program after nearly two decades saying he's always had editorial independence and is ready to do something
8:54 am
else. >> 18 years ago the bosses here at fox promised me they would never interfere with the guest ibookstore question i asked and they kept that promise. howard: i have known and respected chris for a long time and back in the days when he was at abc and nbc and he's the most the best interviewer. he has a seasoned judgment that only comes from so many years of covering political issues and he may be the best debate moderator. hyper polarization, chris wallace has been tough on democrats and republicans and no matter what some partisans may say. cnn is reporting that wallace will join their streaming service with a weekday show when wallace says he's thrilled. major loss for fox news, no question. as a colleague i will miss him and as a friend wish him the best. chris cuomo along with his brother andrew cuomo were discussing ways to discredit fox senior meteorologist janice adina according to cnbc and the "new york post" dean has criticized that
8:55 am
then governor for his handling of covid after losing both of her husbands parents who were in nursing homes to the virus. messaging strategy involving the governor's top aide was to paint dean as a white world-- white wing commentator. these reports say a fire to cnn host was asked to dig up information on her, but it's unclear if it went forward and a spokesman told that there were no strategy sessions aimed at dean but the same spokesman said last i checked she's not a credible source on anything except maybe the weather. janice dean says she's always maintained her criticism was never about politics. newsmax is dropping his white house correspondent. emerald robinson was taken off the air after tweeting about covid vaccines in a way that force the network to distance itself writing dear christians, the vaccines contain a bioluminescent marker so you can be tracked. read the last book of the new testament to see how this ends. robinson doubled down to the point where twitter permanently banned her and now newsmax is not
8:56 am
renewing her contract. sarah silverman the comedian and podcast her likes msnbc joe-- jewelry read but chided her for a misleading item about ron desantis she got hammered by the left in part for daring to criticize a black commentator. >> we can't even criticize the people our own side, can't even critique anyone in your own party without punishment. i did not criticize joy and because she's black, but because she's a harvard educated journalist with the responsibility ideally of showing the whole picture and not just a piece of the picture. howard: sarah silverman showed chutzpah and didn't back down. that's it for this edition of "media buzz", we hope you you like our facebook page. let's continue the conversation on twitter. check out my podcast "media buzz" buzz meter.
8:57 am
you can subscribe in a whole lot of places. for us chris wallace departure was breaking news. everyone here admired and valued the chance to work with him. we will see you next time. get groceries, gifts, & more fast and easy so last minute guests are the only thing you'll be waiting on ♪ ♪ joy. fully.
8:58 am
8:59 am
9:00 am
arthel: this is a fox news alert, communities in central and southern us and devastated by powerful tornadoes with thousands of families trying to begin picking up the pieces of a life they once knew while many continue the search for loved ones who are missing. kentucky's governor saying those storms are the worst in the state's history and fears more than 100 people are dead in arkansas, at least two people died after a tornado ripped through a nursing home for the elderly residents. then it hit a dollar general store at