♪ ♪ howard: president trump has ordered the gsa, the

government's landlord and contracting agency, to cancel all contracts with news organizations. i'll explain this tangled tale at the end of this session is. what "60 minutes" did, and i said again and again from this chair, was wrong, it didn't look good, it didn't smell right, asking kamala harris a question about the middle east during the campaign against donald trump. this was her answer which a aired as a tease. >> well, bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region. howard: but on "60 minutes," a different, harper answer to the same -- sharper answer to that same question. >> but it seems that prime

minister netanyahu is not listening. >> we're not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the united states to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end. howard: just normal network editing? cbs had refused to release the video and transcript, just blew off the criticism, totally without merit. by the way, when i edit interviews, there's a flash to indicate when an answer came later. shari redstone, who controls paramount, would very much like the settle president trump's lawsuit. as "the new york times" reports, she wants the administration to approve a multiplety billion dollar merger with a company called skydance which happens to be controlled by larry elson s who was in the to -- ellison, who was in the oval office the other day. here's the fcc chair, brendan carr, talking about news distortion policy. >> you can't swap answers out. the classic case if someone says yes to an answer and you splice

in a no answer. howard: donald trump says cbs should lose its license and the cheaters at "60 minutes" should all be thrown out and this disreputable news hoe should be immediately terminated. cbs doesn't have a license, individual stations do, and the death penalty seems rather harsh. "60 minutes" is not apologizing. many journalists contend this whole thing is overblown, that new york stock exchanger including fox also do such editing. >> the suit is widely regarded by legal and first amendment experts as, well, as one put it, quote, a frivolous and dangerous attempt by a politician to control the news media. howard: but it certainly seems possible that cbs will be writing a large check to donald trump. remember after the capitol riot when facebook banned president trump? twitter, by the way, did the same thing. trump sued, and marker berg, who

runs parent company meta, has agreed to pay $25 million to settle the lawsuit that trump filed after january 6th. almost all of that staggering sum going toward the future trump presidential library. and abc settled a trump lawsuit against the network and star anchor george steph mop louse who repeatedly said candidate trump had been found liable for rape when the verdict in the civil defamation suit was that it was sexual abuse. and a decision made a by disney chair bob iger, abc agreed to pay trump $16 million. now, does all this litigation send an intimidating message to media organizations about challenging trump? of course. maybe journalists need to think about why some of these cases look so so bad. i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." ♪

howard: when the president moved quickly to impose 25% tariffs on canada and mexico, the media reaction cutting across party lines was divided. >> it has been a humiliating 48 hours for president trump on this tariff issue. as soon as he announced these inexplicable tariffs on canada and mexico, the stock market fell through the floor. >> this has been for him like picking money up off the street. [laughter] you've got about five countries now in central america and above us in canada that are going along in response the tariff threats. howard: joining us now to analyze the coverage, in new york caroline downey, staff writer for "national review." and in phoenix, lucy caldwell, political analyst and adviser to open core. caroline, so trump delays the 25% tariffs against mexico after president claudia sheinbaum says she'll send 10,000 troops to the

border and against canada when justin trudeau talks about a border enforcement and creating a fentanyl czar. for all the a media hyperventilation, was this just trump doing deal making? >> right, howie. legacy media across the board labeled these tariffs a crisis, but that was hyperbolic because, generally speaking, tariffs are not always a boon or a bane, they're just another tool that can be used to advance the national interests. and a majority of trump's supporters, those who elected him, i think, agree that they're okay with, you know, absorbing some short-term cost if it means reasserting our national sovereignty. and, of course, wall street is concerned and the press is freaking out, but this is what the electorate voted for. but even usa today said that the stock market shrugged off these tariff threats as just part of negotiations because they weren't about fundamentally changing our economic relationship with canada and

mexico, they were about border security. howard: okay. all right. your analysis is the media is freaking out. lucy, donald trump took questions the oval office the other day, and he noted the president -- the presence, excuse me, of rupert murdoch, chairman emeritus of fox news media and news corp., who, of course, owns the "wall street journal" which in an editorial said trump was waging the dumbest trade war ever. here was what the president had to say. >> i'm going to have to talk to him. [laughter] i've been right over "the wall street journal" many times, i will tell you. i don't agree with him on some things. howard: but when the president wages this tariff war and sometimes gets concessions, do you think the average person sees him as a fighting for us? >> well, it's so funny the hear anyone describe this as successful deal making by donald trump because, ultimately, what did canada and mexico do? canada said they'd appoint a

fentanyl czar. that that probably costs are little. how much does opening an office for a fentanyl czar even cos maybe a million bucks a year if we're being generous in who knows? but the idea that trump can take a victory lap on this is ridiculous, and we don't have data to suggest this is what the electorate voted for. this is a complicated issue. we have a lot of data and polling back to to suggest this is actually not manager that has widespread support, and that's why even media entities that are often thought of as allies to the free market, political class, to people like president trump are calling this out. so this is trump's superpower and his kryptonite is bravado, and i think that we're seeing that cycle in this little episode. howard: i love the superman reference. i will note just that trump talked about tariffs a lot during the campaign. caroline, whether it's trump starting a trade war or trying to abolish usaid or trying to

downgrade the education department which seems imminent, it seems like all of that the media reaction is, well, that's terrible. that's terrible. except, you know, that that's why you have elections. >> right. and they're just making the same mistake that they made the last four years which is not to be in touch with the voters on the ground and their concerns. and when it comes to tariffs, again, there are many uses for tariffs. one is to reset a trade deficit or surplus, another is as a negotiating tactic. and i know many on the left, legacy media are saying, well, mexico and canada are our trading partners, our supply chains are intertwined. yes. but with mexico, they had wanted the eat their economic cake and have it too, they wanted to enjoy a trade surplus while doing nothing to help us shoulder the burden of defending our shared border. that was a mexico first policy. howard: you obviously -- >> [inaudible] howard: you've obviously studied this. you know, same media reaction, i would point out, when trump has

offered buyouts to federal employees like several of his initiatives, that's now been blocked by a federal judge. but 600,000 people have already said yes -- 60,000. rather than move or whatever, maybe it's time to move on. lucy, let's go back to those lawsuits i talked about at the top. some critics say, well, it's just the corporate bosses caving to trump, and that's why these lawsuits are being settled for large amounts of money. but when was it not true that big money people wanted to get chose to whoever a had the power in -- close to whoever had the power in washington? >> well, of course we've seen that, and we saw that with the beta that -- way that folks like jeff bezos, mark zuckerberg and others lined up in the pews to worship at the church of donald trump on inauguration day. i have a hope that corporate america can be a bull with work against extremism. -- bulwark

against extremism. that is not proving to be the case. i will say that i don't think -- i think a lot of these pieces of litigation and these efforts by the trump world are very inappropriate and chilling and frightening. i don't think a we can take as much as we might want to take from from news of these settlements, because litigation is very expensive. it brings about discovery. and so, to me, i'm unhappy that abc decided to strike that settlement deal with trump. i'm unhappy that meta decided to do this. but in the case of a company like meta, it is a multibillion dollar company, and avoiding litigation by paying out $25 million, i don't like it, but we have to be clear about what conclusions we can draw from that move. howard: yeah. it is true that the mere filing of a lawsuit is very expensive, especially for a smaller outlet. "the new york times" today, caroline, compares donald trump to richard a nixon who infamously went after the press -- richard nixon. and, you know, if the fallout

from these lawsuits is making some media companies hook bad paying out all this money, i wonder if the message is they need to be more careful even if they're talking about trump about whom the standard is you can say anything, he's a psychopath, whatever. your thoughts. >> trump's aggressive posture towards legacy media, howie, is no secret. and while he does wield the term fake news a lot and he did for the last four years, these networks do give him some ammunition and we saw that that ""60 minutes" interview. it was deceptively doctoring a clip to make the candidate for president appear more coherent and less vapid than she was. and the network took the discretion, and they did that liberty so that the public could be confused and intentionally misled about the intelligence and capability of this front-runner. and so it was in a case like that that trump wanted to litigate. howard: right. what's interesting about donald

trump taking questions the oval office the other day -- what a contrast to joe biden -- lucy, there was one camera. we can put that up. and service the on the president. it was hard to figure out which reporters were asking questions. again, i'd like to see that video. and the sound wasn't great. lucy. >> i'm so shocked that. carol: line would use, as a woman in the public eye, caroline, i really think you should be careful no matter whether they are political opponents of yours or not about casually using terms like vapid in describing women in public eye that way. i think that's very serious is. take issue with cbs and how they edited that interview, take issue with kamala harris' policies. do not come on this show and contribute to that kind of culture. i think that is really serious. now, you can -- howard: all right. i've got to stop you there. i've got to stop you there. let me get a brief response from caroline before we run out of time. >> the impression because of the

way those clips were edited, lucy, is that kamala harris did not come off nearly as intelligence ordinarily as she did on the clips that were edited. that wasn't her real performance. that wasn't. that was -- >> that's not what using a term like vapid means, caroline, and you know that as a woman in the public eye. that is not the connotation and the impression people are left with when they say vapid, and i really think you should -- >> national review -- >> [inaudible] >> it's not just women. i'm not treating her as just -- again, it's because she's a candidate for president and we think that we should judge them based on their qualifications and characteristics. national review used that a phrase a lot because it was true, and the hecht rate agreed with that. >> i'm sure they did. howard: both of you, we have to get a break, i'm sorry. i also want to just mention that the pentagon as part of a rotation is suddenly kicking out "the washington post," new york times and politico from office

space this. now, there was an erroneous report that politico was massively funded -- move that a prompter up -- massively funded by usaid, and president trump picked it up calling politico a left-wing rag that somehow had gotten $8 million in federal subsidies. this is a non-scandal, folks. as the publication essextives point out, the figure so to buy subscriptions tonight political newsletter. that's what media outlets do, make a product and sell it. but it gave the president the idea of canceling all gsa media a subscriptions and, of course, he has that right. ahead, we'll look at the gaza controversy. but when we come back, the media coverage of president trump's attempt to fire plenty of fbi agents. ♪ ♪ with hair damage? just like i was. pantene miracle rescue deep conditioner

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howe fbi agents helped investigation the attack on the capitol, and now with president trump having pardoned or commuted the sentences of those involved many in january 6th, their jobs are in jeopardy. there's a media uproar as the trump justice department has ordered the fbi to collect the names of bureau officials involved in that probe. >> you planning to fire the fbi agents who worked on those investigations? >> no, but i'll fire some of them because some of them were corrupt. i have no doubt about that. >> did you make an arrest, did you run reeds -- leads, did you do intelligence analysis connected with the case? in you can't fire somebody for doing the job they're assigned to do, especially if they're doing it by the book. >> donald trump said our justice system needs to change, and he's doing just that, dismissing prosecutors and fbi agents.

the left suddenly likes cops and prosecutors. howard: caroline, this is getting huge media attention. why should fbi agents who were assigned to work on the attack on the capitol which led to a whole lot of convictions be singled out like this in. >> well, howie, legacy media is making it seem like an fbi firing purge is imminent and fbi freakout is expected, but my colleague, andy mccarthy, told me the purpose of this agreement so to clarify the former memo which is to say that the doj is only interested in investigating the top decision makers in january 6th cases whereas the previous memo made it seem like any of the 37,000 fbi employees could be subject to a criminal probe on january 6 cases. and that's not what this agreement says -- howard: interesting. that's not the way it's been reported. lucy city, the if fbi goes after serious bad guys. we're talking about major criminals, public corruption,

and trump wants to go after these agents in the media obviously siding with the agents no matter how many it turns out to be. >> i don't think that the media is siding with the agents, i think that the media with, many many members of the media are reporting on the fact that the trump justice department is doing a thing that really is cause for concern including pushing out a questionnaire nationwide to suss out which agents were assigned to take part in investigations including the january 6th investigation which is very, very closely tied to this president. when caitlin collins from cnn asked donald trump where he was on this, an appropriate answer if you are trying to show that there's no appearance of misconduct or, you know, con so lightenings of who's calling ths calling the shots you might say, obviously, my first administration was closely tied to this so, no, i am not personally going to endorse getting rid of fbi agents who were doing their job around january 6th. that is reasonable.

the media's not siding with the agents here, they are reporting on a thing that is quite questionable. howard: interesting. caroline, i get that the president doesn't want to employ law enforcement types who are biased against him. but, you know, the capitol was attacked, police officers were attacked, the fbi helped investigate, and you say it's only the top discussion makers, but i think to the average person and certainly the coverage has this tone, it kind of looks like retaliation or retribution. >> well, in the language of the original memo, howie, was not terrific in terms of clearly communicating what the purpose was to the public. but as i said, this agreement is saying, no, we're not going after the low-level worker bees, and we're not going to name names. but if we do name names, it'll only be the top names, and they'll be given two days' notice to object to disclosure. of course, january 6th is very ugly, very messy, very

complicated. but honestly, howie, i think most people would not object to an investigation into the fbi leadership because part of the problem surrounding this is still lack of transparency. for instance, we still tonight know why the fbi -- don't know why the fbi or informants or whether they had any communication with protest organizers on the ground. of we don't know why first of all law enforcement asked for the locations, cell phone locations of people who were outside the capitol but didn't break any laws. this is a number of questions that i think investigation like this could answer for the public. howard: okay. now, a judge has at least temporarily blocked any public release of the names. you can understand why if you're an fbi agent you wouldn't want your name released. lucy, it takes a long time to recruit and train top-notch if fbi agents. i don't know what kash patel intends to do, but it's getting a big wave of negative coverage. please, quickly, thoughts on

this. >> yeah. this should continue to be covered. and we should -- i'm glad that you brought up the that court order, a because the reason that we've had a delay in release of these names is because anonymous group of fbi agents went to court, and a judge said, you're right -- [laughter] this is not kosher. and to do this, caroline, respectfully, oh, well, there are still these questions, just asking questions, this is exactly the conspiracy if mongering that we have to allow the media to really, i mean, cover this in a way that is reasonable without falling into conspiracy mongering of this kind. howard: all right. strong opinions on both sides. lucy caldwell, caroline downey, thanks so much. up next, elon musk garnering almost as much media attention as donald trump himself, and much of it not exactly positive. ♪ ♪ i'm feeling better. all in one and done... with mucinex kickstart. aaaaaaaaaaaaa. - headache? - better now. mucinex kickstart gives all-in-one and done relief

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howard: media going def con one in attacking elon musk for

trying to slash the size of government and its employees. president trump in his super bowl interview airing this afternoon defended the world's richest man. >> i'm going to tell him very soon, like maybe in 24 hours, to go check the department of education. he's going to find the same thing. then i'm going to go to the military, let's check the military. we're going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse. howard: joining us now to analyze the coverage, jim geraghty. senior political correspondent for the national review, and richard fowler, fox news contributor. jim, media don't like what elon musk has done to twitter, and they're troubled by a zillionaire wielding such power over slashing government. is this a five-alarm fire? >> it's a multi-alarm fire but not five, right? [laughter] you have elon musk who has been posting about this on x, i've finally broken the habit of calling it twitter, and there's a lot of information coming out.

that's the good news. the bad news is there's no doge web site. you can still find the spending for usaid, but the web site went down which is not ideal for disclosure when you're trying to shed light op on things. it would be nice if doge had a web site the say this is what we found, this is what we've recommended, this is what the president has enacted. look, this is clearly very important, it's having a big impact on the budget, be nice to get more clarity. howard: musk is on the cover of "time" magazine. i think this is primarily to troll donald trump. washington post calls him shadow emperor elon. no private citizen has had access to federal payment systems and all this sensitive stuff can and trying to engineer if mass employee buyout toes, and the white house says, well, he'll redudes himself if he has -- recuse himself if he has conflicts of interest. >> to your point, he's the richest man in the world, and he

seems to be having control over the united states government, a government where he is one of their -- the government is one of his clients. howard: tesla and spacex, sure. big contracts. >> and i think one has to to ask the question about the methodology around how this is being done. case in point, i did some research before i came here. let's take the veteran affairs department. many of jobs are doctors and nurses and farm pharmacists and lab techs that work at veteran hospitals all across the country. they received the fork in the road e-mail that said, you know, you have 10 days to resign. many of these doctors and nurses could get jobs paying more in other places. then yesterday, on friday, they received a note from the head of the v.a., oh, you don't apply to this. this is some of the messiness -- howard: yeah. wait until if members of congress realize this starts affecting members of their district. jim, there's another judge who has blocked doge access to the

treasury system. now, there's actually an economist poll showing only 26% of republicans want elon musk to have a lot of influence on the government. that's way down from the previous poll. i don't know about this political popularity, but certainly he is making decisions that are going to affect a whole lot of people who, you know, including people who are not exactly as rich as elon musk. >> yeah. on paper elon -- this is an advisory commission. standard blue ribbon commission -- howard: let's find the waves, fraud and abuse. >> and all the decisions come from the president of the united states. i think most people would be perfectly fine because, yes, trump was elected. he did say he was going to have elon run something like. the only two people who get voted on are the president and vice president. nobody votes for the cabinet. so it's one of those things where you would see, you know, nothing wrong with him advising as long as the decisions are actually being made by trump and he's not basically saying, sure, i'll sign whatever you put in front of me.

whoever's making the ultimate decision concern. howard: right. let's be real. isn't elon musk taking a lot of the media heat that otherwise would be directed at president trump in. >> sure, i think that's one way the hook at it. many of the folks he's put in different and various agencies, but with that being said, i think some of the heat is definitely warranted in this moment. i think there's two questions here. one, for a long time when president trump and many conservatives outside the white house were saying here's what government should do. now they are the government, so the idea that you're going to just close down an agency via twitter, oh, i think we should get rid of fema, that's indeed problematic for the american people. howard: some of these agencies like the education department, today basically give money to the local are school districts. anyway, ahead an interview with with bari weiss. but a worldwide storm to president trump pitching a plan for the u.s. to take over the gaza strip. ♪ muck throat from allergies? claritin liquid provides powerful,

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howard: the press corps was shocked when president trump, standing with bibinetanyahu, offered a new plan for war-ravaged gaza. >> we should go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts, and there are many of them that want to do this, and build various domains that that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million palestinians living in gaza. the u.s. will take over the gaza strip, and we will do a job with it too. we'll own it. >> it's preposterous, and it's illegal by any understanding of international law. >> are you crazy? this is a crazy idea. i'm sorry, but it's the craziest thing he's ever said. >> what he just said was this would be primarily, when rebuilt, the mace where palestinians would love to live because it would be, finally, safe and not a launching pad for more terror attacks. >> we're not talking about genocide is, we're talking about getting them to safety and

getting them back to a place where they could actually live in peace. howard: jim geraghty, what gives president trump the right to take over gaza, displace nearly 2 million palestinians to give them a nicer home? wildly unworkable or ethnic cleansing? >> when matthews said it's the craziest thing he's ever seen, come on -- [laughter] notice during that press conference he gets asked by a reporter about security, and implied in that is are you going to send troops, and he gives this answer, we're going to do what's necessary, if it's necessary, we'll do that. so people imply, holy crap, we're sending troops over there. the next day on truth social, no u.s. troops will be necessary. it's not surprising there's confusionment there's a never mind tone to this. this giant proposal if comes out, and netanyahu's response

with -- is, sure, let's go with that. howard: you set up my question for richard fowler. i give the president credit for out of the box thinking, but wouldn't american troops be with absolutely needed given that a hamas terrorists are still there and many palestiniansport them? >> i think the answer to that question is, yes. howard: okay. >> this is part of the problem that the president faces in this moment. he got up there, this was not sort of a random statement. he read something that was clearly prepared by staff. we're going to take this over, it's going to be the riviera of the middle east -- >> [inaudible] >> sure. he didn't talk about how he was going to manage the displacement of over a million if people. he sort of made the assumption that the countries around will take them in, and what we've heard from if jordan, egypt and many other countries who are our allies, no, there's an ethnic issue here, and we don't want to take on a million people. this is happening as donald trump is building a wall along our southern border so we don't take more people in.

it speaks to the chaos of the trump administration. howard: let's look at the coverage because there's no question the white house tried to walk this back. well, it's voluntary, it's not permanent, whatever. but trump wasn't having it. he doubled down, quadrupled down, and that's hard to cover. >> yes. because what the president says on tuesday may not be what the president says on thursday. howard: -- a lot of politicians. >> yeah, but it's really extreme with trump. we're going to have the biggest trade war you've ever seen. never mind, we're good. another month extension. howard: sometimes that works. >> if this is all a negotiation tactic, the whole plan had always been if you don't fix this, egypt, jordan, arab allies, we're going to do it our way. then, fine, it's working really well. it does mean people for 24 hours are running around with their hair on fire that the president plans to take over gaza. howe the trump plan hinged on egypt and jordan agreeing to take in a number of palestinian refugees for some period of

time. both countries said no. saudi arabia, who trump is trying to have a better relationship with, totally denounced this idea. so is this why the global press is basically branding this a failure? is this over or is it, you know, still a possibility in. >> i think this might be over, but we'll wait to see. i think you cannot look at this in a vacuum. you have to look at what else is happening in the landscape. he wants to make this livier of -- riviera of the middle eas- howard: sounds like you want a reservation. >> no, i'm good. thames, he's cutting spending at the -- at the same time, he's cutting spending domestically. how is it possible that the united states can mobilize an effort that he wants to take over gaza? those two things are incongruent, and i think what we're going to see over the coming weeks and months of the administration is more incongruency where he's going to have the american people and allies scratching their heads.

howard: trump said friday that israel would give gaza the to the u.s. but israel, obviously, it's not israel's to give. even if the palestinians, jim, end up living many a riviera on on the sea or even a holiday inn, they wouldn't have their own state. every a administration has at least paid lip service to the two-state solution that, ultimately, palestinians would have hair own state. their own state. this sort of pushes that to the side. >> yeah. i will give the president a couple molecules of credit here in that he's giving the palestinians a vision of a much better future. whether or not you're a state or not, if you are living in an economically developed, you have a lot of jobs, prosperity and you're not being bombed by israel, and and you're not being run by hamas -- howard: and right now most of those buildings are destroyed. >> i think the argument is, hey, palestinians, there's an option here. you can go a different path. we'll see whether they take it. howard: briefly, it seems bibi

netanyahu never wants to get to a two of state -- >> no, i don't think they want a two-state solution. you say vision, i say mirage. in order for us to get to a place where the palestinians are actually safe in that region, it will require a two-state solution or at least some sort of sovereignty to the palestinian people. and right now no plan, neither the plan from the united states or from israel, has that in the cards which is why palestinians in the region are saying no to all of this. howard: well, in fairness, you know, many presidents have been unable to solve the middle east problem given how long the entity has gone on, and we're talking decades or even centuries. jim geraghty, richard fowler, thank yous so much. after the break, former new york times editor warily weiss on -- bari weiss on how she stopped hating don trump. ♪ ♪ and lasts a full 24 hours so dave can be the... deliverer of dance. ok, dave!

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howard: bari weiss, founder of the free press, has just passed one million subscribers. it's getting a lot of attention. she talks about donald trump in this conversation that got squeezed out by breaking news last time we were on the air. it's been reported, and feel free to to push back on this, that when trump won in 2016, you were at "the wall street journal," and you were sobbing at your desk. have you -- [laughter] >> yes. howard: has your view of him evolved since then in. >> it's a good question. i mean, look, i'm the first to admit that that i was a sufferer

of what conservatives at the time would have called tds, trump derange. syndrome, and i was alarmed and really nervous about everything i was reading and especially -- and this hasn't changed, about his character,. you know, i'm someone that that believes, call me old-fashioned, that everything is sort of downstream of character. and the kinds of things he had said and the way he had talked and the way i felt he would poise poison our public discourse, those things have turned out to be true. what i couldn't have expected -- there were two things i didn't know many that moment when i was crying at my desk. one would be the sort of overzealous, out of touch, hysterical reaction to him and the kind of illiberalism that was borne out of the reaction to him that calls itself democratic, progressive, but is actually extraordinarily authoritarian and totalitarian in its impulses, and the me, presented a very, very grave danger and one i saw intimately

at "the new york times" which is where i went after "the wall street journal". the other thing that i didn't see was that trump was going to do a lot of policies that i agreed with. i thought the abraham accords were historic and excellent. i thought his policy vis-a-vis iran was excellent, the economy was better. and, look, the argument that the country would unravel and democracy would die in darkness and trump would be this hitlerian power, it was impossible to make that argument in the runup to this election only because americans lived through four years of him, and things didn't fall apart. am i still worried about his character? am i worried about things like january 6th? yes. but i would say, you know, the sign of an open mind and the sign of a thinking person is a person that's able to sort of take on new information and adjust your, adjust your priors and adjust your view. and that's where i'd say i am a right now. howard: so it's been for those who aren't familiar with your

with background, you were brought into the new york times -- >> howie, i was a diversity hire, yes. howard: oh, okay. you cut right to the case there. >> in the sense that -- howard: why did you quit? and did you have a -- [inaudible] >> did i have what on them? howard: a job lined up? >> no, because i'm a fool. howard: some on the right have embraced you because you call out the excesses of the left. in fact, you spoke to the conservative federalist society. what did you tell the group? >> well, i spoke in the weeks just after the hamas to pogrom of october 7, 2023. i was shocked, to be honest with you, that they had invited me. i looked at the list of people that had given this lecture before, and it was, like, every leading light of judicial, of conservative jurisprudence. and here i am, you know, consistently liberal, jewish lesbian from pittsburgh who's a journalist, and i was being invited to the federalist societiesome it seemed kind of

insane. and what it was really about was civilization. and i know that maybe sounds high-minded, who am i to talk about civilization, but it was really about how fragile what we have here is, how exception exceptional america is in the scheme of human history and also in this moment and how, you know, i think when i was a little kid, i imagined that the adult -- there were, like, other people and other adults that were in charge. and now that i'm an adult kind of looking around and realizing, like, we're the cavalry. and standing up for the very basic things that have been eroded over the past several decades, things like, you know, equality under the law, things like, you know, due process instead of mob rule, things like prioritizing ideas over identity. and, look, i said to the group that i was as shocked as they were that i was invited, that many people many that room probably don't believe that my marriage is legitimate. that's an argument for another

day, is what i told them. because right now i feel the fight is so is existential, and the most porn thing are looking -- important thing are looking for allies that agree on those fundamentals, in the exceptional nature of the america, the broad defense of the american project. howard: conversation with barry wise. still the come, the question about a taylor swift and travis kelce. hey, come on, it's super bowl sunday. ♪ this is what joint pain looks like. when you keep moving with aleve. (♪) just 1 aleve. 12 hours of uninterrupted joint pain relief. aleve. strength to last 12 hours.

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howard: cath lin long, a reporter for "the wall street journal", broke a story about a key staff member working for elon musk at doge, the department of government efficiency. the white house confirmed that 25-year-old marco ellis resigned

after the journal linked him to a deleted social media account that advocated racism. ellis, by the way, had gained access to the treasury's payment system. he had written: normalize indian hate, referencing a number of people from india in silicon valley. he wants to, quote, just for the record, i was racist before it was cool. what's stunning here is elon musk's reaction going after the reporter, katherine long. she should be with fired immediately, musk posted on x, and she's a disgusting and crawl person. musk says he's a champion of free speech. katherine long was just doing her job and didn't deserve to be personally attacked. musk is bringing back ellis after vice president vance said i obviously disagree with some of ellis' post, but i don't think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life. and when peter doocy asked the president about it, he said he didn't know the details, but he'd side with vance.

chuck todd, the former moderator of "meet the press," is leaving nbc, part of a trend where prominent journalists are launching their own sites and podcasts. jim acosta, whose disdain for donald trump when he covered the white house was palpable, has been forced out by the brass at cnn. here's what he said in his parting words about the reelected president. >> one final message. don't give in to the lies. don't give many to the fear. in to the fear. howard: today is super bowl sunday. donald trump will be at the new orleans superdome. he's already done an interview with fox's bret baier, and that airs on fox's broadcast. remember when joe biden refusedded to do two of these easy sit-downs? for football fans the question is whether patrick mahomes and the kansas city chiefs can win their third straight game, never been done, against the philadelphia eagles. for everyone else, you know what's coming, taylor swift will be there rooting for the chiefs and her boyfriend, travis kelce.

will he pop the question? his answer to the press was, wouldn't you hike to know? that's a nondenial denial. would they tell us right away, save it for the podcast especially if the chiefs are celebrating a big win? i'm not taking that bet. that's it for this edition of "mediabuzz." i'm howard kurtz. thank you for all the a good wishes while i was off a battling the flu that seems to be hitting so many people right now. the podcast is back tomorrow. subscribe to "media buzzmeter." i riff on the day's five top stories plus the funny ones, the weird ones. apple podcast is a good place to do it. we are back here next sunday, 11.a.m. eastern, with the only media analysis show on national television. ♪ ♪

we are just hours away from the super bowl lix on fox.