be sure to visit us foxnews.com/journal. that's it for this week's edition of the journal editorial report. thanks to my panel and also to you for watching. i'm paul gigot, hope to see you right here next week. >> jon: on fox news watch. >> it's been a great victory for us here. >> jon: game on. >> we have tremendous opportunity to continue this momentum. >> jon: mitt romney wins the g.o.p. company test in iowa, squeaking by, and the press up late keeping watch and wondering who would come out on top. what role did the media play in the outcome. >> he's prickly and lets to get on the case. >> and rick santorum becomes a hot media topic, are they out to burn him? not to let the republicans get all the intention, the president takes time out from important duties to inspires

the demograph, did he inspire the media as well? girl scouts are known for selling tasty cookies and doing good deeds. do you know they're on the lookout for media bias. getting their guidance from an extreme lefty media manipulator, how could that happen? and some lighter moments during a long, long night of political coverage. >> on the panel this week, writer and fox news contributor, judy miller. national review editor, rich lawrie. jim pinkerton, contributing editor the american conservative magazine and former president of the media center, jehmu green. i'm jon scott, fox news watch is it on right now. >> mitt romney, rick santorum, ron paul, the top three finishers in a race out of iowa this week and now

trying to ride that into new hampshire and the media continues to grind away. a media coverage of the horse race itself. now that the horse race denial is over, who you do you grade the media coverage? >> you mean, how they covered iowa? i mean, back to my favorite quote from william goldman, the hollywood screen writer who won two oscars and surveilling the strong career in hollywood. nobody knows anything, closed quote. if we had time to do the video compilelations it looked ridiculous up to the very moment, when nobody, nobody could possibly have imagined, you know, an eight vote margin and even that eight vote margin between romney and santorum is under scrutiny and by the time they air, they'll change that, too. >> i would not even stick to iowa now. >> and i was frankly surprised by the santorum surge precisely because the media said that it was surging. >> well, the people, even people on the right ignored

and scoffed at him, with a few intrepid exceptions, reuben and "the washington post" and a clearly spectator wrong them. but just a reminder how poll driven the media is and how much it's a herd mentality because a rival network had a poll at that showed them at 16%, a week or so out, and that was just the bell going off and all of a sudden, everyone was talking about santorum surging and couldn't gets enough of the guy. >> which game first? was it the surge or predictions of the surge. i think that the media played a bigger role in iowa than what is to be intended, and-- >> do you think that rick santorum is a media creation, his popularity? >> i think his surge was a media creation and it also reflects on that the failed political experiment that is iowa and new hampshire, hopefully will it's the next cycle or within two cycles that people recognize the retail politics failed. 10 million in the last month. leading up to it. the frenzy that we see from

these media folks who probably should be prescribed ritalin to calm them down a witness. >> well, also, i have to agree with jehmu on this. when you look at this, 147,000 votes, 137-- 147,000 people turn out, and look at news rooms covering, they've cut back coverage of everything else, everything else, local and state legislatures, city council meetings, foreign bureaus all being slashed and everyone can find money to send more than one person to iowa. and 1500 reporters, what was this about? >> to focus on-- >> just a question here, one on the media. rich is too modest, national review of his magazine semi endorsed santorum and plucked him out of the pack and that was a while back. >> i love jim's memory. and just before the show, rich reminded me. [laughter] >> and let's also note

something that his reporters have been taking in and to david brooks, to ron brown, noting that if santorum does represent something new, a blue collar spirit, this kim strassel called a conscious politics and if the republican base is the white middle class, santorum probably speaks to it better than anybody else in this race. >> jon: rachel maddow had an interesting moment during the coverage of iowa when she announced to the world that ron paul was getting the endorsement of new mexico governor gary johnson and turned out not to be correct. let's play that clip. >> the former new mexico governor gary johnson never got much traction in the republican nomination recently dropped out for a run for the nomination to seek the libertarian party's nomination for president and we're hearing tonight that gather i johnson has dropped his bid for the libertarian nomination and instead will be endorsing

ron paul. the news about gary johnson, dropping his libertarian party bid and endorsing ron paul was a hoax. so, yeah, sorry. >> that will happen. >> live television, ladies and gentlemen. >> live television, i think that john chancellor is rolling over in his grave. what happened to the standards? >> if you go to -- if you google society of professional journalist ethics code, the first two items are check your source and then check it twice. this is pretty astonishing, and is a value in procedure and checking things and obviously, rachel maddow didn't care i don't think that's fair. everybody makes mistakes and she had a "oops" moment in that. >> did they check it? >> there's such priority getting there first and laid owed. we've talked about it on the show. >> she couched it actually, we're hearing, you know, it does make it sound as if they're pluck it go out from the ether or don't have your sources nailed down and yes,

the temptation is always there, but you have to resist it. >> but if you're plucking it out from twitter my twitter feed at that same time had that same message going out from some very credible people. instead of falling for a hoax i think it would have been better if thinking back to the 2008 coverage of the iowa caucuses and all the conversations about diversity on the stage, there was no diversity on the stage for any of the speeches that night. no one mentioned it at all. and that's a conversation that i think could add to this debate. >> but, you know, the question for me is, why isn't brian williams or somebody live that anchoring their coverage. rachel maddow, it has been said is not a news person, she brings a point of view to the broadcast that she does. why have her front and center in your news coverage? >> i think that this is a choice that msnbc said that point of view. >> they're going to lean forward. >> they're going to lean

forward whatever that means and going forward with opinion and she's the standard bearer for that form of journalism, i think she does that form of journalism that moment and there's that moment. >> there's a moment when olerman was anchoring average and some of the real journalists from nbc revolted and previously, he was back and right now he's not anchoring tv. >> jon: time for a break. if you want to keep up on the website, watch the daily bias bash and check out the watch list section. up next, the president wants a little media attention as well. >> we also feel it's been a great victory for us here. >> one down and more to come. as the political primary season kicks off with a shocker in iowa. did the media play a role in the outcome? and rick santorum jumps ahead in the pack. has he become the next target in the press? find out next on news watch. cr made me what i am today.

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>> the only way to do that is if all of you maintain the same determination and the same energy and the same drive and the same hopefulness and the same optimism about this wonderful country of ours, as was on display fours years ago. >> most viewers did not see the president in that video teleconference or to the voters in iowa, but the obama campaign tried to seize the moment and taking the

opportunity to try to energize democratic supporters in that state which he won, in the 2008 election, obviously, some media managers at the white house, thought it was important for the president to get out there and try and steal some thunder from the republicans. now, that kind of video doesn't do it. no one is going to see that and no one is going to cover it. the kind of thing that does is when you have an unconstitutional action, sort of nonrecess appointments, that gets people's attention and gets you in the news and i think that was part of the calculation. >> that was not a last minute decision though because the obama campaign had more organizers than romney had for months leading up to it and leading up to new hampshire. >> was he worried about losing iowa. >> no, they're lazily focused on-- >> i a detected the surge. i predicted it. >> and romney and santorum's campaign in new hampshire, double the amount of people and the events have been held

in new hampshire and this is not a last minute media manager decision from the white house, this is a very focused efforts on building up the same operation we found in 20 2008. >> what about the recessed appointments that the president made this week, that the coverage in some cases seems to applaud him for being very bold. >> right, whenever it's your team and power, you support strong action by the leader, the democrats spent the bush administration championing constitutional prerogatives and division of power and so on and so on and they switched and also the executive golf course. it was shameless, frankly on both sides, and, but, you know, speaking of media campaigns, the way that president obama ruled out richard cordray and went to ohio and as far as everything he's done, a tv interview, and that's okay that's the job now. he's a household name now and didn't need a confirmation to

do it. >> jon: a washington journal op ed piece says that cordray's appointment is unconstitutional and everything he does in this position will be overturned in the courts mgs i think this will be played out in the courts and a legal reporters story. it's also a political story and we'll see how deeply people care about the constitution. the white house showers have their string of arguments they're happy to read you over the phone that says this is legal and appropriate. >> give them a call right after. >> i know you will, rick. we'll see, i'm not sure it has the same kind of punch as a political argument, as the other issues. >> one of the-- one of the things that came out of the iowa caucuses is a the complaints, i guess, by many in the republican party, the conservatives get targeted by the media and witness the cartoon that ran in the buffalo news, this by adam

zigus. mitt romney with the target on his chest and then, rick santorum and ron paul, i don't know how you'd describe that look. >> well, the only thing i would dispute who the real target is. >> jon: you think that santorum. >> friday's front major of the new york times and "the washington post," when santorum left the senate, familiar hands reached out. and somebody has opposition research going against santorum very, very quickly. >> it's amazing, but i think it's legitimate to examine his business relationships and records as a senator. what i don't like. you can feel the elite media recoiling in horror on the fact na rick santorum has traditional views on some of the hot button social issues which makes a lot of reporters just read him out of might company and deem him crazy and

the rest of it. >> it came out on friday that the unemployment rate in this country dropped to 8.5%. what happened to the stimulus money that was going to keep the unemployment rate below 8%? is anybody writing about that? >> no, i think what we're really focused now on, preventing things from becoming worse, and certainly, the white house is argument, we want to be able to say to voters in november, we have made things better. the only thing they're going to care about now is that trend line that's going in the right direction. if they can say that, i think they'll be happy. >> but, conservatives have been-- have not stopped talking about the 8% mark for the last three years. even after the white house, very early on, came out and said, these numbers, these possessions were based on misinformation that we've gotten from the bush administration, it's not that the story hasn't been covered nonstop for three years already. >> now it's the bush administration. >> got it. >> no, the trend is all that's

going to matter. now, that we are getting closer to that 8%, it's going to be hard to walk back a lot of that. >> except it hasn't the highest sustained unemployment since the 1930's. >> we'll see. time for another break, if you see something that shows evidence of media bias. e-mail us@news watch d.o.t. foxnews.com. and up next, girl scouts are cooking up some controversy. >> universally known for their thin mint cookies, the girl scouts cooked up controversy linking young mine to misfits promoting media bias. who approved that? and what caused campaign carl to get all giddy? answer's next on news watch. [ male announcer ] in bli, even ragu users chose prego. prego?! but i've been buying ragu for years. [ thinking ] i wonder what other questionable choices i've made?

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>> girl scouts are usually known for thin mints and also being upstanding citizens who believe in community service, but the organize recently landed in hot water after it was reported that the girl scouts of america distributed a book to the members, the girls, that encourages them to fact check media misinformation by using the liberal media watch dog website, media matters for america, which is supported by george soros, on wednesday, girl scouts of usa announced they would be reprinting the book, and would no longer refer the scouts to media matters. and rich, what do you think about that? having a-- >> nothing, nothing is sacred, john, obviously. look, whoever wrote this is clueless or a left winger and it's appropriate for media-- i'm sorry for the girl scouts

who say they'll edit and revise the bull. >> jon: they're going to pull it and take the entry out. i guess the book is still on store shelves as it was printed. >> right, just for the spirit of fair and balanced, you can go to media matters or the media research center and get your choice, that would have been perfect, but instead, as rich said, look, if you live inside the beltway and if girl scouts are theoretically across the country and in the end wind up in the beltway mentality. this is what you get. >> but it's a very muddled story because the author, wendy russell said she didn't know how the line got there and she couldn't figure it out. and so-- >> but she said she didn't know. >> right. >> and they never know, no one ever knows. >> it probably means the girl scouts went on there and put it in. they walk into this mess and opened the door for what was a very well orchestrated campaign against reproductive freedom. that's what this boils down to. media matters is just the door that allows the organization to come in and when i looked

at the young woman, protesting the girl scouts, i see someone who spent eight years in the girl scouts and the media literacy is exactly what they're trying to engrain in young women, for her to take the skills and lessons and try to bring the organization down, based on wanting women know the to have the ability to control their bodies and that's media bias and that's not a part of the story as well. >> and her interest isn't taking away reproductive freedom. but she's pointing out that media matters is hardly a down the middle organization. >> oh, for sure. it was a huge mistake on the girl scouts, but again, this is not just about media matters, there's a much bigger issue here and all of the coverage of this, the focus was just, focus on on media matters, and attempt to bring down the girl scouts. >> and how do you know the bigger story if all we know is what's in front of us. >> the bigger story is trying to demonize the girl scouts because they empower young

welcome to have control over their bodies. >> and girl scouts is a pro-abortion organization. >> they're in favor of it education, and-- >> the girl scout favor of abortion, somewhere in the literature. >>? >> not at all. comprehensive sexual education and national reviews has written about this for decades attacking the girl scouts trying to bring them down about teaching the girls about sexual-- >> and lying about media matters in this little book has really anything to do with the so-called reproductive-- >> go to the website and they're speaking out and all about bringing down planned parenthood. >> does comprehensive mean pro choice. >> comprehensive education giving women the tools-- >> does that mean pro choice. >> for some it means pro choice and many on the right pro choice, but again, go to the website of the young woman behind the effort and you'll

see clearly that she is one of the volunteers who stands outside of planned parenthood offices and tries to talk people out of-- >> she complains about this line in this book and weren't necessarily connected to her protesting the planned-- >> and we're going to have to take one more break and we've have it during the break with you when we come back, lighter moments from the iowa caucus. m, while it built up in my system. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantiis proven to help people quit smoking. it reduthe urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking orood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these, stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reactioto it. if you develop these, stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away

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>> jon: we have a lot of

politics earlier in the program and where the candidates fall with the media but there some fun moments when journalists are covering big stories. here are some of the lighter events during the long night of the iowa coverage. >> had mitt romney come to iowa couple more times he may have gotten more than 14 votes. we shouldn't be too shocked by the close nature of this race. it was only 11 years ago that the general election ended in a tie in florida. karl rove remembers that very well when george bush locked it up in the sunshine stated. >> i don't know if those are occupy -- you might want to check that out. [ laughter ] >> they say that the caucus is different. [ laughter ] >> reporter: some say the caucus is quirky. pick your adjectives.

it looks like they are cheering somebody named sara. romney campaign. i've covered the romney campaign for five and a half years. this is america. >> brett: i want to say one thing, carl cameron has been feeding information all night long, great stuff. to end like this, carl, your evening and morning, it's just not fair but it's funny. >> rich lowery was watching it live. >> compelling television that carl reported that chanting sara behind them it was one of the great reporting of that night. [ laughter ] >> jon: that is wrap on news watch.