♪ ♪ howe the man the media dubbed the crypto king, now disgraced crypto can king, is being held without bail in a bahamas jail after justice departmented had him arrested. now everyone is piling on sam bankman fried whose company, ftx, collapsed after he used billions in investors' money for his lavish lifestyle most of which they'll never recover. the sec has also brought charges. but let's not forget how the media absolutely lionized in the guy with the disheveled hair,

the the t-shirt and shorts. he was on the cover of "forbes," on the cover of fortune, is he the next warren buffett? reporters asked few questions about how this socially awkward dude could aa mass such a fortune as he made huge donations to democrats and secretly to republicans and to liberal causes and media organizations over the spring and summer. there were profiles prosecute bahamas by the new york items which said he lives modestly for a billionaire, a straight-talking brainiac. and politico which said he cooks for himself, obsessed with doing the most good for human by. -- humanity. right. since he was forced out as ceo, bankman fried has been on an apology tour saying, oh,st terrible the, i got sloppy, i made mistakes, but i certainly wasn't a crook including this interview with "forbes" hours before his arrest. >> i have reflected a lot on what happens when i get [bleep]

on, what happens when i start to become less grounded, when i start to lose focus and lose concentration on a lot of important things. howard: just lost focus. he has the reverse midas touch. everyone he's come into contact with looks really, really bad. i'm howard kurtz and this is the "mediabuzz". ♪ ♪ howard: ahead, glenn greenwald on the media break freakout over elon musk suspending at least a dozen journalists from twitter. the doj used an indictment to have sam bankman-fried arrested the night before he was to every at a capitol hill hearing, undo you wantedly to prevent him from delivering his self-justifying spiel on television, and that brought clashing views from the pun consistents. pundits. >> republicans were relentlessly

pushing the idea that bankman-fried, who made if enormous political donations to democrats, was getting special treatment by president biden's department of justice because, they argue, the democrats are the party of the corrupt elite. >> so why stop him from testifying in front of congress today? look, he was number one donor to democrat political causes. i think that this was the an attempt to literally shut down the truth. >> and i think sam bankman-fried's strategy, if you look at his bizarre media appearances today, has basically been to try to convince the world that this was not deliberate fraud, this was incompetence. we were just kids, we didn't know what we were doing. >> so conveniently right after the election, story blows up. billions missing. madoff was running the biggest ponzi scheme in u.s. history, stealing cash and donating it to democrats. howard: joining us now to analyze the cover coverage, ben domenech, and in san diego, lara fink, a democratic strategist.

ben, not only did journalists write endless puff pieces about guy, they didn't blink that he was the second biggest donor to joe biden and the democrats. in fact, there was literally a piece in vox saying sam bankman-fried is one of the people biden should thank for becoming prime minister. >> i read that piece -- [laughter] and i think it's correct in the sense that, you know, sam bankman-fried did bankroll so many different democrats. he was an enormous donor to their side. look, the question that i really have coming out of this is, you know, how this figure was covered by all these different media entities that had, you know, compromises that they had, you know, hypocrisy going on beyond -- behind the scenes in terms of the investment that bankman-fried was making in the media space. look, we all know that we've gone through a period in which the level of investment in local media, in media entities across the board has declined. and now they've become, essentially, these hood ornaments that billionaires

purchase in order to advance their various causes -- can. howard: i can think of a few billionaires. >> jeff bezos and the washington post, etc. and one of the ing -- things that i think is a real danger here that sam bankman pried highlights is that if you have these kind of investments in these media areas, then people come and kowtow to you. they frame a story in ways that is beneficial to you, and i think that's very dangerous when it comes to these wealthy billionaires being able to get the kind of coverage that they would like for the causes that they support. howard: well, especially if you're super rich and spreading the money around. laura, only recently did bankman-fried disclose he also made so-called dark mundo nations to republicans. and he said, well, if the press knew he was also giving to the other side, they would turn on him because it didn't fit the narrative of a liberal do-gooder. your thoughts. >> i mean, he clearly is a pr ma a chien, and every move that he's made has been calculated in

this way. i think that is why you see press on the right and the left, "the wall street journal" was not taking him down as a crypto titan, more was fox news. and that is because of his purchase, his ability to do that spin which on one hand reflects the unhesht nature of our media loving a business titan. we love to build up business individuals, titans, people with tons of money as if the money itself were justified and, in fact, made them great. so i think this is a clear instance of celebrity business people getting a pass on all fronts. howard: yeah. and, you know, it's not like he was some boring guy in a suit. he was young and he was, you know, the hair was wild and all of that. so, ben, you alluded to this earlier in terms of bankman-fried giving money, literally giving money to media organizations. that included vox, that included propublica, that included the new global platform semifor.

do you think that affected his treatment, and should these outlets have to give the money back? >> well, first off, i think the outlets should have to give the money back. i think that's the only right thing to do. we already see some politicians coming forward and is saying heir going to -- howard: donate to charity, yeah. >> -- along those lines. but one thing the i think that's critical, what laura said there is important to understand. we have this culture in america where so many of our public community leaders, our leadership organizations and institutions have declined that we are now at a point where americans are looking for leadership that is forward-looking, that they can have faith in. and what is, you know, the signature element of that? it is the amount of money that you make, okay? it is these innovators, these nerds who do good. i had posted myself, you know, at the time that it happened, the picture of sam bankman-fried standing there in his shorts

next to bill clinton, tony blair and, like, a number of other, like, pop stars who were all there gathered at his -- howard: oh, yeah. >> and it's one of these things because just because you get to stand next to katy perry doesn't mean you're a good person. [laughter] it's cool to be able to stand there, but it doesn't make you a good person. howard: right. it was part of the mystique. laura, isn't this just a massive failure by the business press, by the tech writers who were supposed to, you know, act as a check on these sorts of things? i mean, ptx was an unsophisticated scam -- ftx. no big accounting firm like enron had, they used quickbooks, and journalists seemed more interested in this guy's per sea amassed his billions. >> well, he was super smart and surrounding himself with famous people to put the sheen on that

tarnished hood ornament. so i do think that the media were blindsided by this, but i also think because crypto is such a lightly regulated industry, because it's a cult of personality and because they knew that they needed to get more devotees to keep the industry float float, there is much more -- i would cast more aspersions than just the sam bankman fry ifed case on the business media because this is a responsibility and a fiduciary duty to talk about that. but we have an anti-regulation business press as you might imagine. but this is one where we could have all done with a little more transparency, i think we should agree. howard: yeah. well, there is a question whether the whole house of cards is going to come tumbling down in terms of crypto. so the doj indictment says bankman-fried was cooked -- crooked from the time he started the company three years ago but, of course, there was no investigation. joe biden's sec is suing now, but this is fascinating, an estimated so ,000 -- 10,000

crypto tokens, fewer than 10 are registered with the commission. the sec has the power, could have forced compliance but didn't, and the chairman, gary gensler, told "the washington post," oh, i couldn't be prouder of job we've done. >> crypto is very dangerous in the sense that this type of ponzi scheme with something that illuminating how you can take advantage of the system. and, you know, look, i don't think that a regulation is necessarily going to fix that problem, but i do think that, you know, as much as the advantages of crypto and blockchain technologies are very, you know, much, i think, something that could be advantageous to us in the future. we do see the potential for these types of ways to exploit the system, to take money from people, to not have backing for it in 'ems of my kind of real fiduciary involvement. and, look, this is the worst case scenario in a lot of ways. it's going to end up, i think, driving people away from crypto,

making them suspicious of everything. and, look, if south park predicts the future, whole fortune favors the brave misquote that matt damon had is going to be one that i think we all regret, look back on and laugh at. howard: yeah. i never fully understood crypto. [laughter] it did seem like the whole point was to be exempt from federal regulation, but now everybody's piling on and filing these lawsuits or, in the case of the justice d., duty. as for the question, laura, about what would sam bankman bankman-fried have told congress if he had been allowed to testify the, miraculously, journalists found out. somebody leaked to reporters his opening statement, and it taliban with if-ed up -- it began with i f-ed up. so it would have been more of the same, i think. >> well, and also, howie, we just five days ago got the ftc charges brought against sam bankman-fried, and he was on a pr blitz in between that time.

and i think the sec and probably this was by design so they didn't have him testify before congress under oath but not urn oath in front of the media. and they gave him enough rope so that their case is stronger. so you can see -- but i would say before we judge the timing of all of this, you better have receipts, and we have to see how these charges are laid out. right now the sec is building a d -- looking like they're building an airtight case here, and you've got to respect what they did to get there. howard: receipts? the guy that came in to clean it up says there were barely any records at all. when we come back, elon musk banning about a dozen reporters from twitter. been a huge media uproar. that's next. ♪ ♪ ♪ well the sun is shining and the grass is green ♪ ♪ i'm way ahead of schedule with my trusty team ♪ ♪ there's heather on the hedges ♪ ♪ and kenny on the koi ♪

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howard: elon musk fueled a media firestorm by suspending the twitter accounts of a dozen journalists who cover him. twitter told some of the reporters they were permanently banned, then musk said it would be for a week. he reinstated most of them yesterday after 59% in a twitter poll said resore their accounts now. -- restore their accounts. that was actually the second poll. he banned college sophomore jack sweeney for posting realtime information about his realtime jet flights calling them, basically, assassination coordinates. but some but not all of the journalists linked to sweeney's account which got them booted. i've mostly defended elon musk until now, but how does the free speech crew saider suspend a unbun -- crusader suspend a bunch of -- >> i think, first of all, free speech absolutism is not a position that min occupies other than the most -- anyone occupies

other than the most rigid libertarian among us. the simple fact is if you're not a free speech absolutist, then you're not someone who's going to allow child porn, allow violent threats -- howard: yeah. there has to be a line. >> right. when i look atth path regarding elon and these coordinates, i absolutely think it's justifiable, and the reason i do is because he is such a controversial figure, his familied had in this case, you know, you had his son land off of a plane to be tracked by some, you know, person -- howard: and a stalker jumped on the car. >> a stalker jumped on the car. you're going to have a natural reaction to that. i understand it. howard: okay. i i agree with you on that and, laura, you know, i don't think i would hike it or any of us would like it if we were getting on planes and this was done in realtime. but at the same time, elon musk has been a reporter insider -- banned a reporter insider that has been critical of him.

he seems on the defensive now. he banned "the washington post"'s taylor lorenz for sending a tweet saying i'd like a comment for a story. he now said morning that that's just a temporary suspension for a previous koxxing incident and -- doxxing incident and will be lifted shortly. has he gone too far, in your view? >> i mean, clearly. i mean, let's start with the fact that he changed the rules and then made them relate to proactive so he could then ban people that violated rules that didn't exist. and this was true of many of the reporters that retweeted from that elon jet account. so i think it's a very tiny the pig leaf under which he's trying the waters of the limits of who he can ban in a ca a capricious way -- >> but, laura concern. [inaudible conversations] >> howie, that you are mentioning. i'll just finish, ben, that that the fact that he banned lynette lopez, she didn't have anything to do with any sort of jet

coordinates, but she had everything to do with a history of writing pieces that revealed critical -- howard: right. she works for business insider, just to clarify. >> he was using the dc -- yes, she does. howard: hold on, i've got to jump in here -- >> exposes -- howard: i'm sorry. i know you have a lag -- >> i just want to say, it just exposes the fact that he's doing the same thing he's accusing others of. >> here's the hinge, howie, we have lived through years of the left saying these are the rules, you have to abide by hem. this is a private platform, build your own twitter. you have to aa bide by whatever jack dorsey said or whatever the previous regime in twitter said. these are not rules that are etched in stone and brought down by -- howard: but you're setting up my question, which is how is it that the journalists who refused to cover the twitter files proving that conservatives were shadow banned and blacklisted, they say, oh, there's not much

there, suddenly railing about free speech when their friends were banned for one day? >> here's the thing, we know that journalists are obsessed with hair twitter. -- their twitter. and, look, i think this was elon giving them just a taste of theiren own medicine in a certain respect. but, look, the omnipresent sort of location factor here is one that is not in any way a defensible or justifiable -- howard: i agree with that. >> -- thing. if i set up an account that a says where every one of amy coney barrett's children is live time, that's totally legal, it's also completely inappropriate -- howard: you would be -- >> and i should be banned immediately. howard: now, bari weiss who worked with musk on the twitter file said the old twitter was governed by people's whims and biases, and it looks like new regime has the same problem. elon hit back and said you're virtue signaling to show you are good in the eyes of the media elite. has musk given ammunition,

laura, to a media establishment that can't stand him? >> absolutely. but it's not just about ammo, it's also about the business case. we talked in the haas segment about reporters covering the business value and the impact on the businesses. there are so many stories here about the fact that elon musk is driving down the value of a company that he overpaid for, and he was able to do it by borrowing other people's money that banks were happy to lend. so i think that there's -- the undercurrent here that is not being covered -- >> twitter without the journalists is not less valuable than twitter with the journalists. >> if you approach him as a -- that's cute, ben, but not accurate. [inaudible conversations] howard: no. i want to read one more thing which is to give you a sense of how journalists view elon musk. drew hardwell of the washington "the washington post," one of the guys suspended, sent an e-mail, what do you think about qanon? do you believe this stuff or is it just you owning the libs,

trolling people, getting attention as some of your top allies tell us? a lot of people say, well, he's like donald trump, he needs the attention. elon musk also knows all of there controversy -- this controversy drives traffic to twitter. ben domenech, laura fink, thanks so much. up next, the leak of thousands of texts between mark meadows and republican congressmen trying to overturn election, and some of this is pretty wild stuff. ♪ ♪ if your business kept on employees through the pandemic, getrefunds.com can see if it may qualify for a payroll tax refund of up to $26,000 per employee. all it takes is eight minutes to get started. then work with professionals to assist your business with its forms and submit the application. go to getrefunds.com to learn more. after years of chasing the big idaho potato truck... i finally caught it. oh man. always look for the grown in idaho seal. if you have diabetes, then getting on the dexcom g6

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howard: the netflix series rolled out by harry and meghan is an incredible media story with the downing charging that dueling leaks between their press offices and those at buckingham palace kept feeding the british tabloids. >> so, wunsch to be -- wanted to be able to remove a negative story, they would trade and give you something else about someone's principal. so the offices ended up working against each other.

i would far rather get destroyed in the press than play along with this game or this business of trading than to see my brother's office copy the very same thing that we promised the two of us would never, ever do. that was heartbreaking. >> we were in this bubble where everything is controlled by them. couldn't even text my friends a photo. howard: joining us from london, jack royston, a former royals watcher at the sun tabloid and now with "newsweek." jack, so harry took some pretty hard shots there at his brother will and talks about how the different offices were trying to leak about the other's side. the british tabloids at the time must have lapped that up. >> these were massive, massive stories at the time, front page of british newspapers. not actually just the tabloids, the broad sheets as well do -- howard: of course. >> and now harry is not very specific about which stories he said were deliberately leaked in

order to knock if another story out of the newspapers, and journalists haven't necessarily been able to identify which ones he's talking about. but in terms of the suggestion that stuff was leaking out of the palace that was very damaging to meghan in particular, you know, i don't think anybody can really argue with that when you're talking, for example, about the story accusing meghan of making kate cry, allegations in the sunday times that she'd been nicknamed -- headlined her duchess difficult saying her staff didn't like working for her, all of this kind of stuff. howard: right. >> so huge, huge stories at the time. howard: and on netflix they say this contributed to meghan's depression, and there was a family screaming match with william and charles which i think will be in the netflix movie version of this. there's gotta be one. the british press today including where you used to work, "the sun," we can put it up calls harry a traitor, piers morgan, nauseating. two shameless grifters. this is cowardly, treacherous and despicable. what explains this level of

vitriol? >> so two things. one, i mean, harry and meghan have become very unpopular in britain. meghan is disliked by about two-thirds of the british public, and particularly these newspapers. it is their the readership that's the more conservative end of the will political spectrum in britain. the it's the end of the political strum that views them -- spectrum that views them as the duke rain cup chess of woke. they're very, very heavily criticized themselves. but some of the backlash has been actually really quite extraordinary. there was a column published by a very famous column that said meghan should be paraded naked through the streets and have rotten eggs thrown at her -- howard: i don't know how i missed that. thank you for sharing that with us. [laughter] i've got about half a minute. look, they sound whine and self-indull gent at times, they're the victims. but at the same time, they're using their royal fame to make millions from netflix, but why

they be able to tell their story? >> well, this is it, you know? they have decided to sell their story is. some would argue that in terms of their u.k. popularity, it hasn't gone well for hem. i cannot tell you why they shouldn't do this except for the fact that it's made people in britain dislike them. but, you know, why shouldn't they tell their story? everybody should have the right to tell their story -- howard: right. although everybody doesn't get millions from -- >> everybody doesn't get millions and royal relations, i think, have been absolutely tanked by this process. howard: great insight. jack royston, thanks very much for joining us from london. >> thank you. howard: and just ahead, next on "mediabuzz," we have glenn greenwald who will weigh in on the big picture here including about donald trump temperature being banned -- donald trump being banned by the old regime at twitter. t ♪he ♪ d at work helping them achieve financial freedom.

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howard: we now have the biggest smoking gun of all from the twitter files released by elon musk. one day after january 6th, ceo jack dorsey decreed that donald trump could not be banned without an additional strike against him. on january 8th, trump posted two tweets one thanking the 75 million great american patriots who voted for him, the other saying he would not be attending the inauguration. here's what top executives said: i don't see the incitement of fear. don't see the incitement angle here. and one top policy official said safety unit has assessed the tweet and determined there was no violation of our policies. it didn't matter. the liberal company simply ignored these top executives, declared those two tweets were an incitement to violence and permanently suspended the president. major media outlets have mostly ignored the postings by matt

taibbi. >> there's also a sort of delicious irony -- irony to using twitter to basically defin strait twitter and then also to sort of drop this enormous feted stunk bomb in the middle of whae of what used to be private garden of mainstream journalists. i spoke earlier with glenn greenwald. welcome. >> great to be with you, howie. howard: let's start with matt tie yee by, because when cnn finally got around to doing a segment knocking down the twitter files, there was this lead-in. >> yeah. i mean, this is how hay think. hay believe that in order to be a legitimate journalist, you need to go and work for a handful of gigantic media option toes -- corporations that they deem legitimate. fox, of course, is a large media

corporation, but they wouldn't consider that legitimate. and they believe one of the most noble and important traditions in journalism, independent journalism, somehow renders you ill illegitimate at a journalist even though matt taibbi has 10,000 more journalistic accomplishments than poppy hard lowe could ever dream of having. she's so willing to malign him simply because he doesn't work for a big corporation. howard: right. and washington post referred to them as conservative journalists, enthen took that a word out but kind of stealth edited. former twitter safety director, yoel roth, who once referred to actual nazis in the trump white house, said afghan ban that multimull until staffers told -- multiple staffers compared donald trump to hitler. i imagine that says something about the political coloration of the old twitter. >> you know, i think one of the things that we always have to go back to is the purpose of

journalism which is to shed light and transparency on what the most powerful actors in society, corporate or governmental, are doing and the most consequential decisions. all of this happened in the dark. we all had suspicions, but one of the things this did was show not just who they are, but how much their ideology infiltrated their decisions about who deserves to be heard and who doesn't to the point that they regard half the country -- the people who voted for donald trump -- not as having the wrong views, but as a actual nazis, followers of adolf hitler. these are the most pa gnat call idealogues who have been in charge of our most influential social media platforms. howard: right. let's turn to the absolute pummeling of elon musk by the mainstream media. hasn't musk muddied the waters a bit by suspending about a dozen journalists who cover him in part but not in every case because they linked to the college student who was doing the jet tracking which mucks understandably thinks, you know, presents a threat to his family, and doesn't it give the appearance fairly or unfairly that he's punishing his critics

in the media? >> absolutely. you know, one of the things that i've always been critical of elon musk take taking over twitter was the fact that our most crucial means of communication, now social media, are being subject to the whims of arbitrary rulers, of billionaires and whatever they decide to, which side of the bed they wake up on, who has their ear ends up being permitted or not. elon musk came into twitter promising free speech absolutism, and he defined that as a being you can say anything the law permits, and since then there have been a lot of bannings, kanye west being one and scourge arists being others, however you might if dislike what they're saying, can't conceivably be described can as illegal. i think in order for him to have any credibility in making that promise of restoring free speech, what we need are consistent and clear rules, and we don't have those yet, and i think that episode shows this.

howard: right. he's got a lot of power, and he should use it in accordance with the free speech platform that he essentially ran on. musk voted for mostly democrats until now, but he did urge his followers to vote republican as a check on the democratic white house. all these pieces have been written saying, oh, no, no, no, he's a right-wing nut job. >> do you know that elon musk is one of the single largest donors to the aclu, an organization that even in its free speech and civil liberties day was -- heyday was more recognized as being on the left, but especially now it's this overtly democratic activist group. associated with the left wing of american politics. so what this shows that this term the, far-right extremists, is a term hat media uses that has no relationship to actual political ideology. hay use it for me all the time

even though i've never changed my views from when they used to call me a far leftist. if you're not willing to agree with us, we're going to put label on you that's supposed to be somehow damaging. howard: right. you're a right-winger, you're not legitimate, you've changed and all of that. four democratic congress people including adam schiff have written to facebook demanding that they keep donald trump banned into next year because they say a declared presidential candidate, well, he can still incite violence. >> there's one point that i've been emphasizing in my reporting more than any other, it's the one that i think has been most overlooked. most of the times these decisions by big tech to censor are not the autonomous decisions of private corporations. often times, more often than not, they're the by-product of pressure, coercion and even threats from democratic party politicians, either censor more the people we think should be silenced, or we'll use our power in washington to punish you legally and through regulation.

and to watch these people people doing the same thing, keep trump banned, then turn around and wave the banner of free speech because suddenly the people being censored are people they like is one of the most brazen episodes of hypocrisy i've ever seen. these are the people who constructed this regime of censorship that they've now objecting to. howard: yeah. no shortage of hypocrisy here. glenn greenwald, thanks soft fo. >> great to be with you. howard: the leak of thousands of texts between mark meadows and republican congressmen trying to overturn the election. ♪ ♪ n't good. i got into debt in college and, no matter how much i paid, it followed me everywhere. between the high interest, the fees... i felt trapped. debt, debt, debt. so i broke up with my credit card debt and consolidated it into a low-rate personal loan from sofi. i finally feel like a grown-up. break up with bad credit card debt. get a personal loan with no fees, low fixed rates, and borrow up to $100k. go to sofi.com to view your rate.

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go to getrefunds.com powered by innovation refunds. howard: the january 6th committee didn't have a tv forum for thousands of text messages from republican lawmakers and others to mark meadows, president trump's last chief of staff, so the exchanges were leaked to josh marshall of the longtime liberal site talking points memo -- >> the proposition, who do you love and will you be loyal to that person you love? it's not more complicated than that. >> you have the president of the united states who's saying you are legitimate, basically, that your marriage and your love is legitimate. >> but wait a moment, you wonder. wasn't gay marriage legalized? howard: okay, that was wrong sound, i apologize. congressman ralph norman told meadows to push trump to declare martial law. there's the misspelling. video of a romanian man claiming there'd been 50 million cases of

identity theft. congressman scott perry said an italian defense contractor used a zapper for voting machines. congressman andy biggs. i like it, meadows replied. joining us now, griff jenkins, fox news correspondent and anchor and whether it's martial law or italian satellites, some of these texts are absolutely wild, and hay haven't exactly aged well. >> it's a real insight, howie. by the way, i'm not sure it's more alarming that you have a member of congress suggesting the president declare martial law or that the congressman can't spell it. marjorie taylor green misspelled it as well. here is some 2300 messages from 34 gop members, and we get a real look at it. howard: as january 6th draws closer, you can kind of see them getting more and more anxious about it. one said i have anonymous source who says driver's licenses were breached and so forth.

andy biggs and the others, they were fighting for trump, i get that. but they were also determined to overturn this election. >> that's a great point. and many of them are sort of innocuous, battle cries to support the president. congressman brian babbin saying if we lose trump, we lose the republic. but on the other hand, you did have a sign of desperation because you had i believe it was congressman mark green ofnd saying, hey, listen, i just saw dick morris on news max saying that all gop state legislatures can just declare trump the winner. do it. it's like, what? okay. that's grasping for straws. howard: they were all looking for other things. and, of course, andy biggs right now is challenging kevin mccarthy to become house speaker. i don't know whether this becomes an issue or not. what do you -- make of the january 6th committee turning these over to a sympathetic journalist in josh marshall because his time is expiring, done at the end of the year, and holding a press conference might seem heavy-handed?

>> you really put your finger on it, what's the big takeaway here. if you thought the media went crazy about the leak, wait until we see tomorrow when the j6 committee meets if they actually go into criminal referrals on any of these members of congress, many of whom defied the subpoenas for similar information. only time will tell. that's form afternoon. but i do think -- tomorrow afternoon. but i do think the pact you've got talking points memo, sort of the drudge report of the left, if you will, going back to the '90s, clearly that still exists in the left that, you know, here is something that they want to get attention, and that's where they chose to do it. will it get broad coverage? i'm not sure we're going to hear much about it beyond if the committee does choose to do referrells which would be significant because, of course, that committee is soon to be disbanned. howard: right. -- can disbanded. it would be stunning to me. of course, the whole referral thing is basically symbolic because the justice department is investigating the hell out of

donald trump. i don't know why you need referrals. but josh marshall was someone to put up the graphics, and he kind of rolled it out in a serious series of posts. let's turn now to to amazing the other day all media chatter about donald trump putting on truth social major announcement, would it be the campaign, was he dropping out? [laughter] it turned out to be, drum roll, please, donald trump digital playing cards. [laughter] you see him there as a superhero. get yours now, $99. [laughter] >> it saved my christmas shopping list. my wife's getting that one with trump and the laser eyes. exactly. it's this thing you can't buy, and there's no wrapping, $99 a pop. but i think it's appropriate, and it landed where it long aree snl, saturday night live, open last night. it's got to be greatly disappointing for diehard trump supporters who are looking for his return in 2024 to save the

nation from the left and biden, and yet he's now these nft cards for $99? what's next, howie, celebrity autograph appearances at an auto show? come on. howard: again, he hasn't actually been out campaigning sin he announced, but one day -- we shouldn't laugh. they sold out, and now people are bidding thousands of dollars for it which means a nice payday for the former president. after the break -- thanks, grifa measure legalizing same-sex marriage. ♪ ♪ getrefunds.com can see if it may qualify for a payroll tax refund of up to $26,000 per employee. all it takes is eight minutes to get started. then work with professionals to assist your business with its forms and submit the application. go to getrefunds.com to learn more. bye, bye cough. later chest congestion. hello 12 hours of relief. 12 hours!! not coughing? hashtag still not coughing?! mucinex dm gives you 12 hours of relief from chest congestion and any type of cough, day or night. mucinex dm.

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howe there was a huge wave of media praise as president biden signed a bipartisan measure legalizing same-sex marriage, but that's been followed by a bitter left-right divide in the

coverage. >> marriage is a simple proposition, who do you love and will you be loyal to that person you love. it's not more complicated than that. >> you have the president of the united states who's saying you are legitimate, basically, that your marriage and your love is legitimate. >> but wait a moment, you wonder. wasn't gay marriage legalized by the supreme court way back under barack obama? if well, yeah. but they've legalized it again! it's double legal! >> joe is biden held kind of an over the top, you know, celebration, this extravaganza that was named the respect formarriage act, a bill that moves to restrict freedom of religion and freedom of speech even. howard: joining us now, richard fowler, radio talk show host and fox news contributor. we'll get into the coverage, but, first, how did you react personally? >> i think this is a big step for america. i happened to be on the south lawn as the president signed this, and you saw thousands of people out there applauding this decision.

one, because he passed a law but, two, what it means that the entire united states congress codified this idea that no matter who you are, you can get married -- howard: how does that make you feel? >> it's a great feeling to know that you are legitimate, as we heard our colleague, don lemon, say at the top of the segment. but beyond that, if you talked to folks, what other protections can we do especially after the shooting in colorado springs, the shooting in orlando at an lgbtq establishment. the question we're asking is what can the federal government be doing to insure these lives are protected beyond just marriage. howard: the bill did pass with 39 gop house members, but the valve began sa turned out to be -- most of the media didn't focus on the president attacking the supreme court. >> listen, i understand why some of my colleagues here chose to focus on that and, sure, that's worthwhile, but the reason why we're here was because earlier

this summer we saw the supreme court overturn a precedent that was 50 years in its framework. so i think after that there were a lot of folks in the movement that said we've got to do everything in our power to backstop the idea that this court can wake up tomorrow and overturn a precedent around lgbtq equality. so where i disagree with tucker is not that he's make it double legal, what it's saying is, number one, if the supreme court decides to overturn the decision, if you have a marriage, the marriage is recognized in all 50 states. and if you get married in massachusetts and you get sick in montana, you are afforded the same privileges and rights that somebody -- a straight couple is accorded in montana. that matters. howard: right. and, of course, it was clarence thomas who said we might have to revisit some of these things. while there was a compromised amendment, many conservatives as you saw say this was unnecessary, same-sex marriage is already legal or didn't go far enough to protect, say, a

catholic organization that count want any -- doesn't want my part of it. >> if they don't want to be a part of it, they don't have to be. let me be very clear, this is the same argument we had a couple of months ago. we never thought many our lifetime that we would see an overturn of roe v. wade. after that i think there were a lot of other groups including lg lgbtq americans the idea of the congress saying we're going to protect your right to be married, there's more work to be done, but we are going to protect one thing. it mattered because it says the congress and the federal government will use all its powers to preserve and protect two people who want to get married because they love each other no matter what state they live in, whether you get sick, go to the hospital, whether you end up dying, your partner gets that protection. howard: do you feel less secure -- more secure now? >> oh, yes, in that we have a supreme court majority that is willing to overturn longstanding precedents. howard: that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz."

i'm howard kurtz. you can subscribe to my podcast, apple itunes or amazon music enables you to skip the -- [inaudible] christmas day be working. check us out. we'll be here with the only media analysis show on national it's. ♪ -- national television. cam ♪ ♪ em to have a visitor. it looks like - looks like you paid too much for your glasses. ... who? anyone who isn't shopping at america's best - where two pairs and a free exam start at just $79.95. book an exam today. [ coughing/sneezing ] [ door knocking ] dude, you coming? because the only thing dripping should be your style! plop plop fizz fizz, with alka-seltzer plus cold & flu relief. also try for fizzy fast cough relief! i tried everything to remove fabric odors, but my clothes still smelled. until i finally found new downy rinse and refresh! it doesn't just cover odors, it helps remove them up to 3 times better

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we began with the fox news alert as mounting concern at the southern border is mounting as the clock is ticking just three days to go until title 42 restrictions and on wednesday. border towns preparing for the surge to be common on right onslaught. hello. welcome. >> it is great to be with you. here we go. border officials bracing f