thank you for watching. hope to say you right here next week. maybe governor romney should tell us how much money he's made off how many households. >> have you checked your own investments? you have investments through mutual funds that invest in fannie and freddieyz these two gentlemen are distracting from important issues by playing petty politics. >> i'm willing to challenge these gentlemen to a 25-mile bike ride. >> final debate before the florida primary, g.o.p. front runsers don't hold back. are the media pushing the but bt thes? asking the wrong questions? >> the president of the united states. >> president obama deliveredties state of the union address to

congress and the nation. the press made a buildup but did the speech meet media expectations? >> we're going to recess this hearing for ten minutes. >> are you calling the coke brothers? >> the keystone pipeline. is the coverage too one-sided? wikileaks founder julian assange gets a gig on television. >> interesting images from the state of the union address. >> on the panel, a columnist for the daily beast, kirstin powers, jim pinker toton and cal thomas, and bureau chief of talk radio news service, ellen ratner. i'mon john scott, fox news watch is on right now.

>> let me just make my prediction instead by it isn't going to happen. >> why are you so sure? >> there's something i know. the republicans, if they choose to nominate him, that's their prerogative. i don't think that's going to happen. >> i think if she knows something, she ought to say it. if she doesn't, she ought to quit saying it but this is bologna. i don't think any republican is threatened by nancy pelosi and frankly i would rather have her threaten me than endorse me. >> a little bit of the political theater covered in the media. what about it? that's the second time nancy pelosi has implied she knows something dark and sinister about newt gingerich. should the media push for answers? >> and the second time she backed down. first time was the ethics committee now this. she just appears not to like gingrich and the media happen to quote her.

to their credit, they're in small fonts reporting she says she has nothing. >> they did sit on the couch together. >> the fact is that on capital, hill, the media pressed her. and again, nothing. >> well, newt didn't seem bothered by what she's talking about. >> of course they're pressing her. i can -- i think she's getting at anybody who worked with him knows a lot of things about him. i don't know that it's a specific thing. this is something we've heard from conservatives. they've been carpet bombing him saying watch out. if you know this guy, he's a disaster. >> you stole that line about carpet bombing. but i have something to know jim. this is where politics has gotten us and i think the line from rick santorum during the debate that got huge applause was on point. he said can't we get with back

to serious issues? we've got a $15 trillion debt and counting, threats from iran. ahmadinejad has been in venezuela dredging up things with castro and cuba. we have serious issues and they're talking about you're richer than i am. soundses like schoolyard sand box stuff. >> it's true that joana goldburg says newt is capitalizing on the antiestablishment move in terms of the g.o.p. and that's true. his people might not like him but the rank and file people have liked him. >> what ellen and cal are saying, the theater part is taking over. the biggest variable as far as the last three debates was cnn, audience participation. nbc, no audience participation. it makes it more entertaining and the surprise was that even though newt had the benefit of

audience participation thursday night, it didn't help. for whatever reason, romney was better. san santorum was the star but the media is focused on newt versus romney. >> the media ignoring a candidate? that possible? >> that never happens. i think even the establishment thing, i know the voters feel like we don't care with the establishment says because we're antiestablishment. newt is the establishment. the establishment is turning against somebody who is part of the establishment, not against him because he's this free-thinking, independent person. that's the distinction that's lost. he's not some pupulist that's out there. people now him. he's been part of the washington establishment as long as i can remember and then the establishment doesn't like him. >> a line jim used about theater. this has become theater and as i said a couple weeks ago, knowing

no higher authority than myself, the republicans shouldn't put themself into a jeopardy-like game show with electric turns and letting wolf blitzer, john king, others formulate the questions and plot. mix it up and decide on their own venues. there's nothing written in the constitution where they have to submit themself to these people. >> you mentioned the monday night debate that had no audience participation. why invite an audience in if you're not going to let them be involved? >> that's a good question. you used to work at nbc, you tell me? >> i think they didn't want certain candidates to get that -- i don't know, roar of -- a rush of adrenaline from the crowd. >> i think it's more they're intimidated. they don't like having their questions booed. they don't want to be booed -- and it could get out of control. if you come back and people are booing and you can't get your word out --

>> except people watch more when there's audience participation. if you want to get up your numbers, have an audience. >> wolf blitzer was propelled. he came after newt gingerich. one was flummoxed by newt's adversarial position and wolf said i'm not saying anything you haven't said. >> are the questions designed to get answers to issues that people want to know about or are they designed to create fireworks and conflict? >> they're designed for fireworks and conflict but i can see how the media and democrats are delighted. but if your 19, you're getting bored by the answers. not to say i'm for these things but they're not breaking new ground, except for newt when he talks about space. >> the replay element you get on tv are all about the candidates attacking each other, not about their ideas. >> they're not about issues.

>> or their ideas versus president obama. will that change once we get down to one nominee? >> when we get to one nominee, there will be comparisons. because the debates are focused a little more on comparisons of issues, the presidential debates, they're done by presidential commission and i think they're good. >> one of the topics cnn didn't include, president obama's state of the union address but we'll take it on next. [ male announcer ] how about we make a big change for just a little money? let's start with a paint we know can do the job. new glidden duo paint plus primer. ♪ one coat does double duty. ♪ and fits our budget perfectly. so there's a brand-new room right where the old one used to be. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. new glidden duo paint plus primer only at the home depot and starting at only $24.97 a gallon.

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>> rich noise at news busters had a piece commenting about how each of obama's speech -- they're all different and make different points about about bailouts versus banks and winning the future but each one, they all love them. it's like four children in a row. they all love them. >> nbc described it as rousing and an optimistic speech. they couldn't give it enough praise. jonah called it -- >> i'm a liberal and i liked what the president had to say but what nbc did was off the charts. if our staff wrote that i would be furious. another thing that happened was there was a love fest from the negotiation and though fox was one of the groups, the president had lunch with the anchors. this is not a well-known thing but every president has done it. how come -- >> ahead of the speech. >> ahead of the speech.

how come the news media did not make that connection by who attended, what they said and is there a self censorship. >> the better connection was the republican national commission put this out first and fox picked it up, where they compared the lines that president obama used in his previous two state of the states that were almost verbatim. the other things mentioned what brian williams said. i would hold out words the networks used when george w. bush and reagan were president and still, and not everyone agrees with the president. >> he started by commending u.s. military forces and ended by reminding everyone that osama bin laden was killed on his watch. is there a coincidence? >> i think it was a smart way to do the speech. he was trying to appeal to

people sort of better sized and say this is something we can agree on. we have an amazing military. they pull together under every circumstance. it was a smart way to honor the military and get people to get along. >> ellen it was the lowest rated of his state of the union addresses. are people growing tired of it? >> as a press person covering speeches since 1993, i'm look how many times do we have to hear the same thing? one of the public radio stations pulled from reagan speech, carter, bush and showed they take the same lines and reform late them. and -- >> give me a break. >> it's the best you can do if you're the media and love the president and have a weak product, you take the bad news and turn it into good so chuck todd leads with competent confidence, the economy has gone

from 20 to 30. still a low number but it was big news. >> let's have a new rule. let's have it the way the airlines do it. you must stay seated until the speech comes to a full and complete stop. it looked like whack a mole. >> it would make for a quicker evening. after the speak the president hit the road and went to arizona where this photo was taken of him as he met with arizona governor jan brewer. the media had a heydey. >> one msnbc congressmen indicator compared it to little rock. him pointing the finger at him and the equivalent of white racist heckling. >> give me a break. my right wing stations made a big deal of it and left wing. it was a conversation.

we weren't party to it. >> i think it was incredibly rude. to do it to anybody but he is the president of the united states and she does interviews about he's thin-skinned and all he did was bring up her book and they flips out. that's strange. i don't know why people are defending it. >> it's good politics. what she was saying is you ain't nothing but a hound dog. >> we're going to leave it there. if you see something that shows evidence of media bias, email us at foxnews.com. the keystone pipeline, an important topic in washington and other places. is it an important one for the press as well? >> the keystone pipeline going anywhere due to political posturing. have the media done a fair job presenting the issue? and wikileaks founder julian assange going from leaking

secrets to talk-show host and guess who's airing the program. details next on "news watch." [ laughing ] vitafusion multivites: the adult gummy vitamin with the taste and nutrition that just might inspire a little "healthy" competition. enjoy your gummy vitamins.

we're not going to be subpoenaing the coke brothers and we're not asking the coke brothers to appear because they have nothing to do with this project. we're going to recess this hearing for 10 minutes and then come back. >> are you calling the coke brothers during the recess? >> let me tell you something, if you want to talk about that, let's talk about the millions of dollars that you obama administration gave companies like solyndra. >> that was ed whitfield react to go henry waxman's calls for the coke brothers to be

subpoenaed for answers on the keystone pipeline. waxman wasn't the investors to answers questions about how they profited. charles and david coke are frequent donors to conservative causes. so one report -- well, first of all, ellen, your reaction? >> i mean i looked a lot to see if it was really reported and that dustup was not reported as was not a very -- at least in the print media, it was not reported in terms of what the democratic minority did in the letter they sent to ed whitfield so it was not there. it was either rah rah pro or anti. >> you don't get a lot of coverage of subcommittee hearings generally. >> look, it's good political

theater, back and forth. impugning each other's motives. >> who do you think we are, britain? >> there you go. but look, the real -- the reason it got a lot of traction besides the media action study which said there were more pro than antipipeline people, it's a better story. 20,000 jobs, oil that answers our energy concerns. canada will sell to china if we don't get it to the pro pipeline people were nor interesting than the anti-- the environmentalist. >> what about the media matters study. liberal website says the pipeline is getting all the good press. >> well, what do you think they're going to say? of course they'll come up with that study. as cal said, unemployment is a big issue in this country and jobs are a big issue. james from reuters made the point the unemployment rate is

8.5%. at the same time president obama can use energy 25 times dancing around the -- >> back to columbia journalism they did a study on where the numbers came from in terms of the statistics. this this they took it apart from the middle. >> ed the school definitely approaches from the middle. >> look at that article, jim. >> moving on. wikileaks founder julian assange is a tv host. he's getting his own show on a network bankrolledded by the in addition government. it's on the rt muse network starting in march. so this is the guy who likes to, you know, spill secrets and conspiracies. >> i'm sure it was a difficult

choice between the kremlin and russian tv and nbc. i'm sure they'll do well. >> there are a few challenges. >> no, you go. >> he's under house arrest in britain. there's a challenge to make this a show from -- >> first of all, it's only ten one half-hour programs. i share an office with tom heartman who does a show on rt so i want to be open about that. we are talking about the kremlin but we have -- we have backed -- we have backed shows b al jazeera and they've become part of the media. >> web was that? >> not we backed it but they're considered part of the legitimate media. how do we know after a period of time -- >> al jazeera -- i mean the russian government is murdering

journalists. i don't think al jazeera is in the same category. if you're going -- if i was julian assange, he should be concerned based on his history that he could do something to upset them. >> we have to take a break. up next, key moments from the state of the union caught on camera. i'm in a tricky situation here. i'm bidding on a 1979 dukes of hazzard lunchbox, but my auction ends in 15 seconds !

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mics caught obama saying to leon panetta good job tonight. the successful rescue of an american held hostage in sosmz. the mission another sector u.s. forces the next big moment when the president gave a big hug to gabrielle giffords who survived a gunshot to the head a little more than a year ago. she resigned from congress in an emotional ceremony on wednesday. all cameras focused on the president's speech but before his arrival they kep kept an eye on the vice president. giving him shoutouts and standing up in front of his peers and hanging out with the speaker of the house and telling jokes. they say photos like these joe biden is the drunk uncle of the united states. [ laughter ] >> jon: that is wrap on news watch. thanks to our panel.