born and c.n.n. sighed on tuesday a video showed a producer from c.n.n. dismissing the coverage of russia on the network as nothing but a push for ratings and then on wednesday a second video showed c.n.n. host van jones referring to the very same coverage as a nothing burger now a third video showing c.n.n. president jeff zucker himself fleeing from o'keefe who is seen asking about the coverage of russia parties on your part until has the latest if took a break from releasing any particularly explosive or revelatory reports today and attempted to secure comment from c.n.n. c.e.o. jeff zucker in light of his latest undercover series american proverb to c.n.n. take a look at how zucker avoided o'keefe questioning whether this is mr suckers resins of thirty to sixty fourth street in new york city the same story you in a moment are about to rush a story. ok that was pretty cowardly there was

a. pretty girl exactly that. the incident comes after project veritas has released two videos catching c.n.n. employees admitting the network's obsession with russia gate allegations it's a ploy for ratings on wednesday project veritas released a video in which c.n.n. political commentator van jones conceded so far attempts to prove collusion between the trump campaign and russia have resulted in quote a big nothing burger the series has already created quite a stir speaking to our t.v. project a very toss communications director steven gordon spoke about what he sees as the difficulties c.n.n. and others have had at responding to their reports been virtually all of the mainstream media the reason why even yesterday. a little opposition julie into the game. if you can come over simply because. the truth. nobody's

been doing that up to date isn't the only one minute. we. gordon may have a point considering for example newsweek reports c.n.n. responded to a quest for comment on the van jones video with three letters l o l meanwhile this week's developments have put c.n.n. under a microscope with some now drawing attention to the network's social media presence according to the web site twitter audit which takes a sample of at and accounts followers and analyzes those people's number of followers and tweets in order to determine which accounts may be fake only fifty two percent of cnn's thirty six point five million followers are real their estimates cast a similar number for fox news is fifteen point two million followers while imus

n.b.c. looks slightly better with sixty seven percent of their one point five million followers checking out comparatively r.t. america manages a score of eighty three percent though our overall number of followers is lower than the major mainstream networks while for now c.n.n. c.e.o. jeff zucker has avoided answering any tough questions about his decision to run with russia gate stories at all costs o'keefe as promised more videos are on the way with what he describes as a hidden camera bombshell scheduled to drop tomorrow in washington on your part until our team. well the mainstream media has barely covered the james o'keefe project but the internet has shown no mercy to take a look. and

c.n.n. president jeff zucker might have to get used to being in the hot seat a recent report in the new york post indicates a team team might quote neutralize ducker after it acquires time warner. will purchase time warner for an estimated eighty five billion dollars if the justice department approves an antitrust case in the next sixty days according to the report. believe c.n.n. might be too much of a liability with this recent bad press so for more on this we're joined now by legal and media analyst lionel of lionel's media why don't we start first let's

break this up here eighteen t. the merger with time warner tell us what that means to the average consumer. well everybody who is the consumer of new is most understand. the entire beginning and end of this issue is that merger. we're talking about journalism we're laughing about. the nothing burger but as far as in the hallowed halls of a time warner the only thing they're thinking about is that eighty five billion dollar merger and c.n.n. if that poses a roadblock if jeff zucker poses and impediment they're gone expurgated removed excised frozen moved up stairs laterally the last thing in the world. cares about is some piddly pain in the you know what news organization their goal is entertainment now what's also interesting from the consumer point of view there

is this fascinating a legal argument that's being brought up involving a vertical merger and now for the first time you have you need bedfellows you have the democratic wing led by al franken elizabeth warren and bernie sanders who wrote this letter very concerned about this merger you also have susan susan rice who was dozens of rice susan collins susan collins who was also worried about a republican and you had donald trump the. candidate at first who was himself worried about this now vertical mergers for people who at home vertical mergers will be like a car company that buys a tire company by the window company it actually helps people horizontal mergers those are the problems now what this is about two things precipitated this concern number one this past week the anthonys scaramucci story with the risk with the

threat of a one hundred million dollars so lawsuit why because of the impediment to this deal now why do we keep saying that what would why is this a problem well ask yourself the question when the justice department reviews this for a possible violation of. and you trust laws who is the person who runs the justice department what's the name of that guy he's the pro yeah donald trump now this has a parallel remember we saw this with fox fox got rid of ailes and bill o'reilly because of the sky deal it's net things are never as they appear now you want i'll talk about journalism we'll talk about journalism or journalism is growing but i say this again and i want everybody to understand this this is about the merger they could not care less and even though zucker did a great job i'm sorry please and i wanted to stop you on that thought of speaking

of journalism and where we're going with all of this because the new york times has had a slew of recent recent retractions. the attraction the retractions of the alleged consensus of seventeen intel of this russian hacking when in reality we only have three or four of them therefore you know they're there subdivisions of those said three or four agencies what of that what does this mean to the viewer when people are being misled by seventeen this was the talking point this was this axiomatic truth this is what everybody was saying oh does the new york times waited this long and by the way they didn't even go bag and clarify all of the words but how is it. but in view of this this new revelation of how is it that some of the as important i think it is axiomatic you know if you

force a seventy to seventy seventy seven and it became the talking point so what it goes to show you is that the bottom line is simply this ladies and gentleman c.n.n. mainstream media sockpuppet media are dead and watch the raw like the phoenix of alternative project very telling us foreign media citizen journalists new platforms because the american and world consumer doesn't care about that masthead doesn't care about the old gray zone eighty eight cares about the truth and any way that the american or the world consumer of news gets the truth that's all that matters it's a new day and new era ad where the tip of the spear my friend thank you so much for always sharing your great insights with us lionel of lionel media in new york city thank you. the president's travel ban took effect

just moments ago at eight pm eastern time on monday the supreme court agreed to hear the case in addition to striking down lower court's orders to halt the ban the ban put severe limitations on citizens of six muslim majority nations seeking to enter the united states exceptions will be made for those with a quote bona fide relationship with a person or entity here in the united states. and president trump was back to his old form today taking to twitter to attack joe scarborough and make up brzezinski of m s n b c s morning joe in two consecutive tweets this morning the president called me quote low i.q. i referred to joe scarborough as psycho joe and recall the time when he refused the two access to his mar-a lago as. resort and as expected the media spent the entire day with wall to wall coverage of just those tweets and deputy white

house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders responded to suggestions that the president had gone overboard today. the president has been attacked mercilessly on personal accounts by members on that program and i think he's been very clear that when he gets attacked he's going to hit back i think the american people elected somebody who's tough who's smart and who's a fighter and that's not a trend and i don't think that it's a surprise to anybody that he fights fire with fire. for more on this we're being joined now by a conservative talk show host andrea kay and democratic strategist stephanie willis ladies thanks for being with me this evening i'd like to talk about what what potest said in his tweet but not in the way that mean stream media is talking about it we get it that what he did was bad it was insulting we get that this is how donald trump rolls but stephanie is the media giving too much time to his bad

behavior and not doing enough to talk about the real issues at hand like case law just passing the house today or the travel ban going into effect this evening a lot of real stuff to talk about right seventy. absolutely there's a lot of great issues going on with kate's law in addition to the no sanctuary no sanctuaries act however i think that some some coverage needs to be had on the fact that donald trump did something that he always does and he messed up he made a mistake and there's no accountability for his mistakes so i think that you know they're doing a good job in the fact that they they are covering it but after a certain point they need to move forward and we need to keep continue talking about the travel ban the health care bill in addition to kate's law so i do agree with that to a certain extent that andrea what are your thoughts on this given that it's not just democrats coming to me brzezinski's defense republicans are also asking the president hey come on cut it out is trump hurting his own cause i mean all this is

a distraction isn't it. well i agree that it might be a little bit of a distraction but first of all i don't agree that it's universe lee considered to be a mistake i do think that he was in part elected because he's doing something that no republican has done at least in many many years and that's punching back against the left there whether it's in the media or the left or elected officials that have been allowed to insult demean degrade conservatives with no impunity and republicans are just expected to just take it down with a double standard not only that but i think that america is coming off of eight years of which we had a slick talking con man who made a lot of beautiful pretty promises while looking pretty well he was saying it and unfortunately the end result of those promises was ugly in terms of the results of from an economic and security standpoint so you know the american people long ago long before this tweet today made a conscious decision with eyes wide open to elect a man who sometimes made

a crass remarks in exchange for what they believe is going to be better results for prosperity and security standpoint and what do we have today we have case law finally being. just as well as an immigration law that's going to make america safe again and that's really what the american voter cares about but regarding being a punching bag and taking this laying down i mean for eight years president obama was also pummeled with horrible crass remarks from a lot of people and i think it's fair to say that when you're the most powerful person in the world you're going to get pummeled you better get used to it and grow thicker skin when you say stephanie absolutely and that was one of their key terms during their administration when they go low we go high and that's something that's extremely presidential i mean he could take a keynote from you know from president obama here but you know we have to go back to the fact that yes you have to remember a truck was the one who started bertha resume he continued to pummel at president

obama for an extreme amount of time claiming that he was not born here in the united states in addition there were other media outlets who in turn pummeled at president obama however he did not stoop to that level and that's something that the president needs to understand he's no longer campaigning he's the actual president of the united states yes individuals elected him to this position i mean he didn't win by the popular vote we all know that but individuals didn't like him to this position and he needs to act in that manner of going after a journalist and discussing her image is not something that's presidential do do your job do what you're supposed to you will you will get back at these individuals by passing bills by helping the american people which is something that's not even happening at this point i'm glad that you brought up bills because andrea president trump has actually said very little about the recently revealed g.o.p.

senate health care bill should he be out there helping mitch mcconnell to whip up support for this bill. actually he's been meeting with people like senator rand paul and ted cruz behind the scenes but i. i have to go back and address what stephanie said because i have to correct the record there's enough fake news going out around today is as you opened your show with and it was actually not president trump who started the birth or movement that was hillary clinton herself but let me also remind the viewers that president obama actually did attack members in the media told the people at campaign rallies in other places to not watch fox news and to not watch hannity and said that he could pit somebody against hannity and may also remind people that i don't recall any conservative host ever using the kind of demeaning rhetoric against president obama that we have heard from mika brzezinski and joe scarborough in which she will and other scurrilous thing well you know i didn't interview interrupt you stephanie i suggest that you couldn't even you could even criticize president obama on policy without being called a racist i suggested no conservative host could have ever gotten away with calling

president obama mentally ill he would not have had to respond with a tweet because that person would have been fired immediately on the spot now in regards to health care i think that. he is doing what he can do behind the scenes you know present a truck went into office facing two opposition parties of the democrats as well as the republican establishment that really didn't want necessarily the people's agenda to be put forth which president trump was elected to do we see people like susan collins want to fund planned parenthood then on the other end we've got ted cruz and rand paul wanting free market solutions so he's really got a tough battle on his hands and he is dealing with it behind the scenes and i'm optimistic because at least what we have so far is better than obamacare which is absolutely crumbling and you know the average american is far more concerned with the fact they can't pay their premiums and even if they can have access to medical care with high deductibles and then they are mika brzezinski feelings today and let

you get the last word in there just real quickly sure absolutely i mean we're talking about health care here i'm glad that you actually brought that up because it's a it's a fact that i want to actually call this the robin hood bill because they're sent. taking from the poor with their subsidies and actually giving to the rich so i don't know and it's in my opinion that a lot of people are actually for obamacare that's a part of the reason why miss mcconnell couldn't bring it to a vote and bringing back to the fact that there haven't been media conservatives who did not go after president obama we have to remember that when during joe and me show their top they're attacking his professional character not him personally so that's one thing we also need to consider as well he has a track record president has a track record of demeaning women and this is just another instance of that fact ladies we've got to leave that right there you know mentally ill and calling it mentally ill is not attacking him personally come on and he has a right to take gotta leave whereas merrily never i am out of time we'll have you back on to talk about that some more andrea kay stephanie willis thank you so much

thank you. the liberation of mosul from isis is quote imminent according to the u.s. led coalition in iraq but the cost of liberation for the city has been massive artie's more i've got recently spent over a month in mosul and recalls his his experience there. it isn't over yet they haven't taken the entire city isis is still in a number of neighborhoods in the city of mosul with. the good is symbolic because that is where these slum a state was proclaimed nevertheless you know if you think back could want to price this victory has come it is it is tremendous this is a city that has basically purged of its population and reduced the north much more than. rubble and it is very difficult to get a true sense of the devastation in mosul through videos and articles really

you need give and then the standing of how bad it is and and how much was sacrificed when you walk through lubes very blocks the streets we. but at this crossroads because the view here really epitomizes what. has been through the neighboring street all but destroyed the street across rubble the street over there it's the same story wherever you look that's in iraq. launching missiles. at isis targets in and you can hear isis small arms fire they're targeting the helicopter in turn. of precision i haven't yet seen a single house in mosul untouched by fighting isis makes sure not to give up. without a fight and the iraqi army and the u.s. led coalition seem to make sure to not leave a square meter scorched it's bad what's happened to the city but what's happened to

the people of mosul two million inhabitants before all of this things they went through the air strikes for example countless civilians new counting how many people of families children entire neighborhoods were killed in trikes plenty of bodies still buried under the rubble. a little alarm would go ahead your garbage coming the power again of now much. there you have come to me to add much of the general that we can enter into the fold. a woman is our focus of her i could i should have to put their american up i like your mark on my arm my sorry i know how to do over the summer but i had my out of

a militia but out of the civilians were i says human shield they were the defense they hoped that by putting severe. that every house by fighting on roofs in houses filled with civilians that the coalition the u.s. led coalition would refrain from bombing or cut back on its airstrikes they miscalculated at the end of the day they said basically well this is war civilians die civilian casualties are a fact of life in this sort of situation the battle of mosul was never going to be easy that was no wonder standard but obvious from the onset isis defended with all they have they used callously the civilians of mosul but the approach of the u.s. led coalition and the iraqi army their brutal you could say methods yes strikes the shelling the rocket attacks they didn't do much to lessen the suffering of the

civilians in mosul. all right for more on this and the latest out of syria let's go now to former u.s. diplomat jim. jim let's let's turn the page to syria the syrian foreign ministry is rejecting all of these u.s. allegations that they were you know prepping for a chemical attack and and are saying that this is a pretext for u.s. aggression in their country your thoughts on that well let's remember these accusations that first came from sean spicer earlier this week no other preparations for another chemical attack referring to the one in april supposedly the president ordered the attack on the air base and there's been more and more bit material particularly the article from seymour hersh earlier this week in fact just before mr spicer statement that the socially debunked that attack i think it's pretty clear to most observers this was not a chemical attack by by the syrian forces so you really wonder how they can be

prepping for another attack when it does look like there was a previous attack and then you have a few days later general bad as service now secretary about is saying well the warning worked they called it off well how would they know that or you know i suppose they could do it some time after the the whole thing looks very very fishy to me you almost get a sense that this was contrived for some political purpose or maybe involved some kind of fighting between various elements of the administration now what do you make of the white house and u.n. ambassador nikki haley threatening syria with that why pay a heavy price to tell the truth by to make something of it i can't i can't figure out what ambassador haley's talking about as far as the white house goes i think i think this was contrived i think this was something maybe just said for political effect so they could say look how tough we are looking hairy chested we are the syrians back down the russians back down we're tough and when mr trump goes in to see mr putin he'll know that we did we don't mean any nonsense

a little dog and pony show it. down some people have said that they are not my right and. then the russian foreign ministry spokeswoman maria she claimed that such action could be aimed at derailing the next round of syria peace talks broke that are as you know being brokered by russia turkey and iran the power players right now in syria which is set for next week in a stunt of the capital of kazakhstan and the meeting is meant to determine the specifics for these safety zones writing set up in syria do you think that's a valid statement that this is meant to derail that that's the other possible interpretation of this whole episode that there was really some faction with the administration that was trying to do that maybe even trying to upset the apple cart for the meeting at the g. twenty which is a good will be occurring about the same time and keep in mind there's an even larger direct danger there is that issuing a warning like that you're telling isis you're killing al qaeda who also have

chemical weapons when actually they may have chemical weapons maybe the syrian government doesn't anymore they say ok boys do your thing set off the charge blame it on the government and the americans are prepared to act there's a real danger there well i mean i am not saying that you should read president trumps mind but given all of these actions leading up to the g twenty how will this sort of rhetoric affect potentially affect the way trump might respond or the way putin might respond to one another it's hard to say because one of the disturbing things in the seymour hersh article regarding the april episode was that at the time the intelligence the military commanders were telling him there was real doubt that the syrians have done this but apparently he could not be convinced otherwise or maybe he he believed them and still felt he needed to act to make some kind of a show here i don't know how he will fold that kind of attitude if you will into his upcoming meeting with mr putin i think i think because of the political pressure he feels here at home he's got to show he's not

a patsy he's not putin's puppet so i think that all goes into his calculations you think it will go well next month. i really don't know there were there have been reports or fights with the administration about should it be a subset of beauty or just a side bar handshake or something like that and that mr trump wanted to have a substitute bt i think they will get one and i hope they will especially with the developments in mosul in iraq we are looking at some kind of and game here with regard to isis fell territory we need to figure out where we're going here and not have a conflict brew love each other or hate each other there's got to be some sort of cooperation in syria at this point right i agree thank you so much jim jatra former u.s. diplomat thank you. all right that is the news tonight i am military ready and for ads show up at will be back next week follow me on twitter at military and we'll see you then have a good day. at

the white house on all sense against the media is this really a winning strategy on this edition. welcomes of politicking i'm laura schwartz in for larry king nearly from its start donald trump's administration has been at war with the media the president's claims of mainstream press reporting he calls fake news about him and his staff have become all too common of an occurrence but lately it seems the accusations have taken on a darker tone and the very important relationship between a free press and the white house seems to get a little more strained each day we'll get very different perspectives from breitbart senior editor at large and old.