up in the low to show the real headlines with none of the mercy if you live in washington d.c. you know the risks of being a war journalist now the twelve journalists have died during the arab spring we have learned simple you have a very crucial question to ask is it worth it we'll speak with restrepo co-director sebastian younger next should it radical letters to the editor be printed that's the question being raised after a georgia newspaper printed a piece from

a reader that is incredibly islamophobia then i ask if money really does value freedom in light of the recent germany strauss kahn scandal well determine if there is equality in the u.s. justice system or if it's all about buying your way with the best possible lawyer then i vote to end oil subsidies failed in the senate last night but there's a much larger question to ask here even if it had passed but that have solved all of america's problems or are these smaller politics what's getting in the way of real change that and happy hour for you tonight but first let's move on to our top story. was only weeks ago we reported to you the tragic death of two photojournalists in libya tim hetherington and chris hondros but their deaths are not the only ones according to the committee to protect journalists and human rights watch twelve journalists have been killed during the arab spring that's taken over the middle east and north africa dozens more have been detained and it's a dangerous job to bring truth from conflict zones the pictures the firsthand

experiences but in a media culture that's obsessed with sex scandals and celebrity dancing shows you have to ask or journalists a very critical question is risking their life or is that it's a topic that's especially relevant for our guests earlier we caught up with sebastian younger co-director of the bestselling author of the perfect storm and author of the new book out called war now sebastian is covered war zones for years from sierra leone to bosnia to afghanistan it's a dangerous job so i first asked him why he does it. i think there's no way to cover a war without undergoing some of the risks that people stuck in the war after undergo the civilians of bosnia afghan civilians or soldiers american soldiers is just that's there's no other way to get the information that is that they use the reason you're there do you think that it's a bit of a thankless job i mean you know i think if people look back they might even remember why a certain conflict may have begun at it probably they remember less so the

journalists that risked their lives and maybe even lost their lives you know in order to cover that conflict and to bring the truth from the ground meanwhile everybody will remember the latest sex scandal. and you know that you don't really slews of in the public consciousness i think. and you know of the reporters that i know they do the work because it's very very gratifying to find exciting some of them probably got into it because they thought it was kind of romantic. and you know i think there is a kind of a high status attached to attest to doing this work that draws a lot of people it is dangerous people do get killed but everyone understands that's that's the risk and i you know i most of the people that i know do this work would actually do it for free if they had to be really or very very committed to it how do you keep yourself removed from the politics of it all how do you just do a straight reporting without being in a place like afghanistan looking at of course the death and does the destruction

around you and then think of osama bin laden's recent death and realize the whole time hey he was in pakistan or even look at the conflict that's going on in libya where of course your friends and hetherington was killed that's a military conflict right now that has no clear goal and absolutely no consensus internationally. well you know i sort of most of my experience covering wars were civil wars where civilians were going enormous numbers and those. wars were stopped by outside military intervention was near cost of all sierra leone liberia. and now libya i mean thank god nato went into libya i mean there would be thousands and thousands of civilian deaths in cities like gaza if the outside world it's simply stood back the way we did in rwanda simply stood back and watched a powerful government slaughter its own citizens so you know i don't much care i am able to be impartial my bias if you will is that civilian suffering civilian death

is a bad thing and so with afghanistan i mean i was there in the one nine hundred ninety s. the civil war of the one hundred ninety s. and as bad as things look now in afghanistan it is nothing compared to the ninety's four hundred thousand afghan civilians died in that decade of the ninety's since nato was put it afghanistan thirty fifth highest estimates are thirty thousand civilians have died so you know for me from a humanitarian perspective. as bad as this is it's a huge improvement over what i knew fifteen years ago there so but is it not a doubt in your mind than it that you think that there would have been higher casualties in libya had the un not intervened there i mean i think a lot of people would argue that the entire premise that this was a humanitarian intervention has to come into question especially now that it's reached a stalemate and often that type of prolonged conflict leads to more civilian casualties . and i think i have to disagree i mean i think there's civilian casualties were to

a minimum because kind of his troops were kept out of cities like benghazi where gadhafi himself. to basically create a bloodbath of his own civilians so. you know i mean. the genocide in rwanda a million people were killed you know surely had to french or the belgians of the u.s. go in there and stop that war probably would have taken two or three weeks. that would have saved human life they would have required maybe military force to do it but they would have they were. do gooder net huge net saving if you would life human suffering it's really hard to argue against that for the same reason we need police in the cities of our country no police innocent people will die and they will become violent places so let's go back to some of the risks that we are talking about now that tim hetherington it was killed in libya has not changed her outlook at all where you have her cover another war again. you know i'm ok

personally with the idea of risking my life cautiously and wisely but would risk my life in combat to cover these stories but we in terms of death i had this trip terrific rebel revolution but that's not really what's at issue it's not what we're talking about we're talking about the effects on everyone who loves you if you die i can be ok with it but i'm going to do what i just experienced with him i'm going to do that to everyone i'm close to and so i kind of made this decision that i'm not the i'm going to try to keep covering these important stories but not very for a lot of positions where i'm getting shot at and killed i just don't want to put my family my loved ones through that anymore i've done it for almost twenty years you know frankly i think it's time to let the next generation move into those roles. now you know i think that one of the things that was obvious through the strap oh through your book as well is that you examine those personal relationships actually you know the fact that we hear about war and we think of it on a massive scale but

a lot of the time it comes down to the personal relationships between the troops and the minute there with especially if it's an out place outpost and a very remote part of the town so how do you think though that your experience might differ when you have to go back and forth between the states and between afghanistan and the way that the soldiers feel every time that they have to readjust to normal life again. you know the guys i was with most of them didn't reach us they stayed in the army and they're off years between deployments. we spent on base in italy training for the next deployment so they did not come back to their their toes and their farms and their cities you know they stayed they stayed they're still fighting and so i you know for me is and as an adult. i think the transitions were easier but you know these guys are twenty years old and i think going back and forth the way i was i think would have been extremely hard for them i'm older you know i think as you get older you just deal with things a little bit better now lastly i just wonder if he's ever think that war reporting

that the pictures that we see from the ground of the stories that we hear but average people let's say you know the average american sitting at home safely on their couch watching these stories can we ever fully grasp what it's like to be in a war zone. you know you can't fully grasp anything from television but you can you can acquire some gordon information about the topic. t.v. coverage of the vietnam war played a huge role in the vietnam war the they they needed the press there so that the suit so that the american public could have a informed conversation informed debate about what we were doing in indonesia likewise in afghanistan we need the press there you won't you won't understand completely what it was that reality is but you will get enough information to have an informed debate that's what democracy is and god forbid we have to loose here we

lose that and all the reason i guess that the journalist you go out and risk their lives in order to bring the stories and the grounds of action i want to thank you very much for joining us tonight and of course we appreciate the work that you do and we are very sorry for your loss as well of him having thank you. thank you very much. still to come tonight a recent islamophobia letter to the editor is earning a georgia newspaper a lot of criticism for what guidelines should newspapers new this to determine which ones get printed and which ones get mixed then will also revisit the scandal surrounding i.m.f. chief dominique strauss kahn but i will take a closer look at the inequality in our justice system is the key to getting off scot free really all about getting the best lawyers that money can buy we'll speak with the young turks and hysteria when we return.

we are ready for it. we haven't got the chance to say ready for freedom. hey guys welcome michel ancel on the obama show we've heard our just stop to say on the topic now i want to hear audio just go on to you seems a video response on the twitter first part of the questions that we've host on you tube every monday and on thursday the show the song responses. will be heard.

for. instance. you know how sometimes is the a story and it seems so for like sleep you think you understand it and then he limps something else you hear sees some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry for going to the big picture. the sun.

again phil times from gainesville georgia is coming under fire for printing a letter to the editor from reader jim starr nagle now in this letter the reader congratulates the delta pilot who recently refused to fly his plane with two muslims on board and he also went on to say that it's impossible to distinguish between muslims who are anti-american and just waiting for a chance to do us harm versus those who are merely pursuing their religious beliefs in this country he then concluded by saying of the only way to be sure and safe is to just exclude them all as a perfect example of the fear that pervades the minds of many americans it's manifested into islamophobia discrimination and hate so the question that a lot of people out there are asking is should newspapers be printing these beliefs but are extreme is that responsible journalism or is a third job to really give every voice an option if you put out there or discuss this with me is christopher chambers lecture at georgetown university and author of

the blog turner's revenge chris thanks so much for joining us you now what do you have to say here that you think that do you think you know it's really the newspapers responsibility are they supposed to and it's obviously they always get to choose which letters to the editor they write out there or not but it's their job to edit something if it might offend a few people or quite the opposite should they be putting it out there so every voice every opinion is you know back in the day before you know corporate media before the internet you know the internet used to do that all the time we still do it for grammar. so it's like that obscenity you know you know basically do you have the power to cook the kind of stuff or no should they but the pros only use you a lot of times they will let this stuff go to create a blow so you can see it on the internet and comment sections through it's almost the front opened up for more commentary and more engagement more entertainment more . has gotten has gotten

a lot of attention out there talking. but do you think that it's more acceptable you know i mean these days i think that it's fair to say a lot of americans might just agree with jim here i think that they probably are scared and so you know is the better way to just put that out there so forces people to to come to terms of that to confront these feelings and really talk about them as i do you overcome think about and i don't know what goes on in editorial meetings or production meetings you know i mean those are very cloistered kind of areas but i mean they do make those decisions and we will kind of both of those create what kind of debate would this create or it might be we agree with this tacitly so we're going to let it slip out i mean i personally think more analysis more coverage more professional on this kind of issue would be better than letting you know just jack ass comment and comment because again that's what newspapers used to do back in the day they did have a focus they did have a point of view it was an information point of view it wasn't a propaganda or

a commercial point of view and now it's just let's just throw everything out there get people talking about it and you know maybe even pander to some of the lunatics out there you and i are in the media business we've had comments about also on web sites etc etc that bounces off but that's not part of the debate it's just a byproduct they're trying to manufacture something here but if so many americans i mean to really think you know that let's say just exclude all muslims right easier to just get rid of them all and then we can always be safe which is ridiculous to me i dare you to get rid of every mother america and then you tell me all crime mysteriously disappear no one has ever killed once again but suddenly professional media even because i think that you can say that the mainstream media in terms of t.v. has been coming under a lot of fire for that is they try to give two sides to every story these days the signs of you having more and more extreme you know you have to show some common

sense i mean should they i believe they should. we legally professionally their only obligation is to cut off the only thing that's libelous and slanderous word invasion of somebody is privacy or profanity is now beyond yes they should because they're under an obligation i feel to present information and to teach people not to spander and i think here they are pandering to people only and it does our media teach us anything anymore when. we watch berger debates and we watched you know aides that are actually taken seriously doubt whether the president is a muslim or not you know. it's again in the. meeting i'm sure that was the guy idea we'll let this one go through will fire up all the other loonies that believe the way he does the polling on the community and it will generate both he will get more it will get more hits on our website we get more people reading it in the morning that's what's going into it but there is an obligation here to teach people and

perhaps that means cut that stuff or you know the test is going to be are they going to follow up with some article some coverage some analysis if they're not if they're just going to churn it and have even more lunatics on or maybe some radical muslim on the other side they can quote the fire of people that's going to be the test and i bet you what's going to happen is they're not going to teach people they're not going to be any editorials it's going to be the same old stuff so they're going to act like oh here's a letter to the editor and the rest of you decide what you want to make with it which i think you could say is fairly typical or usual to see it was there and do that when it comes of the letters to the editor but i want to ask you something else has also become more acceptable for people to express these types of pain you know you have the if it's about immigrants or if it's about muslim americans or if someone wrote an op ad saying i think we should get rid of every skinny white guy that's angry at the government because timothy mcveigh was one of those and you could also say that they were there in arizona. that you know they wouldn't i mean

because buzz when you're a bit you see. our prayers are more for all of the experts in the famous people in the politicians. it's because of the internet the advent of blogs and social media were anything goes we were told in the ninety's in the early part of the twenty first century that the internet was going to transform us and it's really just basically crystallized our own prejudices but we still have the weird idea that you're just having just gone further discussions and even anonymous or troll comments on blogs and things like news sites that's great that's the mark you see what all of us done is bring a lot of lunatics out of the woodwork and that's trickled in the traditional media now t.v. clearly and newspapers and i think there is a responsibility to build a wall and say hey i'm not for this stuff somebody's got to be the top tier writers i want to thank you very much for joining us tonight like i said this one is causing a bit of controversy but you know it's got us talking about it but i do think that

it's important to talk about the fact that americans some americans actually feel this way and you know how short of memories they kill how do you know how it's really dangerous and so i think some of these emotions that they have need to be confronted put somewhere else thanks so much thank you. now ever since the alleged sexual assaults by i am a chief dominique strauss kahn here the news cycle if then perhaps the most interesting to watch the reactions the differing coverage surrounding this story yesterday we expose you to the headlines from many european newspapers and makes to look like a victim of winning but it doesn't stop there and there were a french officials and friends of strauss kind of also made him out to be a victim of the american justice system elizabeth if we go the former justice minister said that she's happy that france doesn't have the same judicial system and considers images of strauss kahn have got to be brutal and violent even joe levy a french magistrate also lamented that the u.s.

justice system doesn't distinguish between the director of the i.m.f. . and any other suspect the idea of equal rights he calls that while it may be true that we have no problem parading around officials or celebrities in handcuffs can anybody really argue that our justice system is equal earlier from our studio in los angeles i caught up with an experience the host of young turks university and i first asked her what she thinks of those differing opinions and the coverage that we've seen of the story when we compare europe and of us. i mean the opinions are radically different in the u.s. you see people that are you know not necessarily saying that he's already guilty but they're holding him more accountable and you know they're a little more skeptical about him whereas in france you know it's almost as if they immediately assume that he's innocent and this is a set up i don't want to dismiss any theories that it could possibly be a set up i know that he was really tough on banks you know he was planning on running for president in france and he definitely has some political opponents that

might set him up so i don't i don't want to dismiss that but you know i can definitely notice a difference between the two ways the countries are reporting the story is completely different but you know everybody is innocent until proven guilty and they should be that way in this country but the whole blame the woman thing is just drive me crazy but anyway let's move on to the way that the view the justice part of it you know. in france according to some of these officials in the statements that they made they just can't believe that somebody of such a high ranking like domini strauss kahn would be paraded around in handcuffs for the media but i mean it really is that just an illusion or a real justice system in this country just because you see somebody who's a high profile case in hand does that mean that we're actually going to see a fair trial. i think that we still see a fair trial that's why prosecutors and defendants are very careful when it comes to jury selection the jury is not supposed to pay attention to the media that's

very important and you know of course and i don't blame them french officials are concerned about the perp walks you know but you have to keep in mind that we don't intentionally do perp walks when suspects are being transported from one place to another of course the media is going to take their photos in handcuffs and then they're going to publish those photos officials in france right now are saying that that's wrong because it makes people automatically assume that the suspect is guilty i think that's a legitimate concern however i have a problem with censoring the media if the media takes those photos i think that they have the right to publish it and you know i think that the most important aspect of our justice system has to do with jury selection it has to do with the proceedings in court and i believe in our justice system now the one thing that officials in france brought up that i completely agree with is the new york daily news when the story first broke published and huge picture of dahlan extracts and

right next to the picture it said let curve. that i'm not ok with ok because that's are already making the assumption that he's guilty and i think that that's irresponsible part of the new york daily news but in terms of publishing photos of him in handcuffs he's a celebrity in a sense you know he's a huge public figure it's to be expected. i thought all of her thing was kind of funny i have to admit i guess you have a point there when it comes to a certain responsibility when it comes from journalists but if you think about it. is almost this is kind of a rarity that we see such a high profile figure like you said a celebrity we've seen paris hilton and lindsay lohan being paraded around in handcuffs so many times but just think about the fact that we haven't seen any wall street bankers been held accountable for their crimes we haven't seen anybody from the bush administration be held accountable for their crimes so you know do we also understand justice in a little bit of a different way are we more easily thrown into going after someone who's

a celebrity rather than someone who is you know a politician who might have some kind of institutional protection. i think that it has to do with institutional protection and it also has to do with money and power now is the suspect has the money and is powerful of course they have an advantage over the middle class of the working class when it comes to criminal cases i mean john many extras cause he's going to be able to afford the most expensive lawyers he's going to have a great defense team that's going to defend him in this trial in this case and the same could be said for celebrities like lindsey lowe had when it comes to wall street bankers i mean they've gotten away with some of the heinous most heinous crimes in my opinion and the reason why is because of institutional protection but when it comes to people like the two of us you know what it comes to the middle class of the working class we don't have the power we were not the lead enough to hire expensive attorneys and have the upper hand in the advantage in our justice

system so i definitely think it's flawed in that aspect but why do you think the french officials would say that just because in this particular case they might be trying to defend dominic straus economy do they really look at the u.s. justice system as one that's equal for all europe has actually led the way when it comes to prosecuting bankers compared to the united states. i didn't understand your question completely do i think that the french are looking at our justice system as a way that treats people equally as i think that's the claim that they're making right is that you would never see that in france that somebody. stature would be put on trial in the same way that let's say a low level criminal would be but that's just not true and i think that we hear so many critiques from you know european countries often about that because europe has prosecuted more high level officials when it comes to bankers for the financial crisis than the united states has so you know do you think that there's

a little naivete or there is something they're just trying to gloss over when they make those kinds of statements. yeah i agree i agree with you when it comes to that i think that both justice systems definitely have their flaws and you know in the united states we have a huge issue with letting the elite get off scot free when they should be punished for their crimes and that you know i think both justice systems definitely have their issues now one other thing that i do want to cover here is that obviously the stories dominate strauss kahn story and the story of arnold schwarzenegger's sex scandal which i don't really want to cover but they have been dominating news headlines in recent days if you think our media is irresponsible in the sense where they just a sex scandal something that's about infidelity with alleged sexual assault or an alleged attempted rape. i think so i think that those news stories are covered in a very similar way and i feel like they you know the media looks at it as something

that's salacious rather than something that's criminal and i'm talking about dominique strauss kahn you know with our of sorts a nigger that was his personal life that's something that he did before he was elected as governor and you know as salacious is that story is personally i don't really care and i don't feel like it's any of my business ok but when it comes to dominique strauss kahn i notice that the media in the us covers the story in a very similar way and i think that that's a little unfair this is a very serious case these are heavy charges you know charges of rape should not be taken lightly and you know just going back to that new york daily news cover her view even not only makes him look guilty before he's gone through a trial but it also kind of makes it look like a joke you know so i definitely think there's a irresponsibility in the us media yeah i guess being a perv and sexually or allegedly sexually assaulting someone are quite different

things and i thank you so much for joining us tonight thank you. well still to come tonight you know a whole scandal surrounding the catholic church a group of bishops claim that woodstock is to blame for the sexual abuse crisis but have details on that it's a nice tool time fragments on the senate voted to end or oil subsidies and they failed last night so let's take a look at the bigger picture here will ending subsidies that really makes all of our country's oil troubles we'll speak with david robert and we returned. to the we in the park right now. i think. the one. we're going to call the. safe.