new book about president obama. amateur barack obama in the white house is keeping the number one slot on the new york times list of or a second week but while the public seems to be embracing klein's exposee the media and "new york times" not so interested. why is that? >> might be that the new york times is not terribly interested in what ed klein has to say. >> no? >> that might hurt president obama. what is striking it the way the media trying to help the administration or even ignoring their own books. you think would have been available to people in the past and the washington post even downplayed that. normally on the front page and put it on page 6. >> according to amazon it as deeply the david moranes book a deeply reported generational biography teeming with fresh insight. masterfully drawn from hundreds of interviews and goes on and yet not getting a lot of attention. >> byron york did a great article about this comparing it to the book that came out about george bush called fortunate son that has information about him allegedly using cocaine in his 20s that was treated as if it was just this absolutely c

and it's become farce with "the new york times." the story is "the candidate next door." "the new york times" dispatched reporters to mitt romney's la jolla home, went around the neighborhood, found every democrat they could to trash mitt, and in fact admitted as much. >> well, ok. go ahead. >> admitted as much, saying that personal political animus contributed to some of the hateful stories. we were talking about ann's horse story. and i don't know if you know this, but i was like -- i was actually going up to vermont. i was going to live in vermont a couple of years ago. and the turn iptruck hit a bump, and i fell off the truck. this is the first election i have covered. so i don't remember. mark, maybe you can help me. did "the new york times" ever dispatch reporters to john kerry's homes? because john kerry is worth a lot more money, obviously, than mitt romney. like his georgetown home, was there ever a story on the georgetown home that you can recall? >> i don't recall that. >> was there ever his massive, massive farm outside of pittsburgh, was there ever a story on

times" famed home section? known throughout the world as "the new york times" has a home section? (laughter) but that's not the point. was's the point again? >> its proportionality. it's all about proportionality. if it were "the national enquirer", and they were doing this to both candidates i wouldn't say a word. i would say you know what, fair game. >> jon: fair game. it's about fair game. fair game is a big issue. that the media seems to be talking about, about whether or not it's fair game for other people to be talking about these big issues. >> now this battle over bain, what is fair game. >> tax on mitt romney the businessman and whether or not that is in fact fair game. >> is that fair game and a successful strategy for the democrats to use romney's business record against him. >> jon: is it fair to judge job applicant its on prior work experience? (laughter) it says here, it says here-- (cheers and applause) >> jon: let me see. it says here you have no experience in cardiovascular surgery and are you not even a doctor but in the spirit of fairness-- (laughter) >> welcome

times" famed home section? known throughout the world as "the new york times" has a home section? (laughter) but that's not the point. was's the point again? >> its proportionality. it's all about proportionality. if it were "the national enquirer", and they were doing this to both candidates i wouldn't say a word. i would say you know what, fair game. >> jon: fair game. it's about fair game. fair game is a big issue. that the media seems to be talking about, about whether or not it's fair game for other people to be talking about these big issues. >> now this battle over bain, what is fair game. >> tax on mitt romney the businessman and whether or not that is in fact fair game. >> is that fair game and a successful strategy for the democrats to use romney's business record against him. >> jon: is it fair to judge job applicant its on prior work experience? (laughter) it says here, it says here-- (cheers and applause) >> jon: let me see. it says here you have no experience in cardiovascular surgery and are you not even a doctor but in the spirit of fairness-- (laughter) >> welcome

>> interesting dynamic, during the bush years, the bush white house begged newspapers like the new york timeswashington post not to splash the state secrets on page one, those paeps did it and now an information that's leaking to the new york times and more than had an ip to help the president out by doing exactly that. >> and said that the leak does not come-- >> wait a minute, that's another problem, once you have news organizations saying it wasn't him, it wasn't her, it wasn't the third party, it's going to be easy to identify who it was. and you know, i'm for, yes, it's true i'm sensitive about this because i went to jail to protect a source, i know what happens when a leak investigation starts it's a huge distraction for an administration, that's facing enormous challenges and problems and for the media. and this does not end well. >> jon: and there's just this nugget from a fox news poll out on friday. the pollsters asked members of the public who do most members of the media want to win the election, obama 58%, mitt romney 21%, unsure 13%, more news watch ahead. first, if you see some

walls, and we have made a different decision which is to grow traffic, and we've overtaken the "new york times." now even the "new york times" did not have pay walls. maybe we not would have been able to overtake them, so there are trade-offs. at the same time, a new revenue line is going to be through apps. you know, people are much more used now to paying for especially ipad apps. i mean, we have a new magazine app for the ipad that's coming out on june 14th which is absolutely gorgeous. it's beautifully designed. it takes -- you know, "the huffington post" now has 1,500 stories a day. >> 1,500 stories a day. it's very easy to miss a lot of them, even if you are in the editor-in-chief. >> even if you have that thing by your bedside and you wake up in the middle of the night. >> so we pick the best of the stories every week and like, you know, beautiful stones, we put them in a setting, and that's something for which we're going to be charging, but that's a different thing. you know, the web is going to be free. if you want to have everything curated in a beautiful app once a week on thursday

impact it has on its neighbors, shouldn't you also publicly say now that it was unbalanced for the "new york timesk about john kerry's wealth four weeks before the election. >> "the new york times" was running such a full-time ad for john kerry, don't beat up the coverage in 2004. >> come on. >> you can debate that off the air. i think the reason romney is getting so much scrutiny right now is because the press belatedly has come around to the view that he may win this election. i think a month ago the conventional wisdom was the president will skate in and now with the polls being tight, with romney outraising him in the latest period and the economy having that bad jobs report, there is a sense that this is going to be a very close election and we could possibly be looking at a romney administration and that's the reason that the scrutiny i think has jumped aup a notch thanks fr stopping by. >>> up next, is the obama administration leaking classified information to make the president look good? david sanger being in the center of this growing storm. all energy development comes with some risk, b

so at least we know according to the new york times where the line is with this president for too much power. >> does this kind of leak,. >> doug: did i, have any effect on national -- does this kind

that bill maher is going to be on the losing end of that. >> he bought a piece of the new york mets and the new york timesid a glowing story about the purchase. and rush limbaugh tried to buy i think a piece of the rams and got hammered and basically told by the nfl he couldn't do it, why? >> the whole new york times piece was dilutional, actually, it described a person that does not exist. there's a description of bill maher that has no connection to reality, including, atheism, a part of the theme and he's a libertarian? he's an obama supporter, a liberal. i thought maybe they meant lieb lieb liebertine, but he says the most vile things and the idea that he would get a glowing profile is disturbing. >> jon: we have to take one more back. h.b.o. takes a gentle look at bush 41 and something very different for bush 43. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement available only with liberty mutual auto insurance, if your car's totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. to learn more, vit us today. responsibility. what's your policy? [ male announcer ] you're at

that bill maher is going to be on the losing end of that. >> he bought a piece of the new york mets and the new york timesid a glowing story about the purchase. and rush limbaugh tried to buy i think a piece of the rams and got hammered and basically told by the nfl he couldn't do it, why? >> the whole new york times piece was dilutional, actually, it described a person that does not exist. there's a description of bill maher that has no connection to reality, including, atheism, a part of the theme and he's a libertarian? he's an obama supporter, a liberal. i thought maybe they meant lieb lieb liebertine, but he says the most vile things and the idea that he would get a glowing profile is disturbing. >> jon: we have to take one more back. running. then get some blades spinning, paper sanding, and bits turning. let's motor to the only place that carries our favorite tools... for our favorite people... armed with a budget and a mission... and see what happens when we put those tools to work for us. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get this ryobi 18-volt drill kit for the new low

talk about the "new york times." d accused them of by as coverage against romney because of a story that ran on the front page of the. >> about a la hoja mansion? >> san diego. he thought it was a very negative piece. the problem is that -- and joe scarborough said later in an interview, he has three hours to feelt fill and sometimes he just says things that he based off of impressions he had that can't necessarily be backed up factually. people will always go after the "new york times" to see if they are giving bias. the "new york times" has consistently proven and reporters will say as soon as you accuse them, if you look at the database and the amount of reporting are reporting, your impressions aside, they are covering both sides. >> he -- >> pretty well. >> he accused them of never talking about how much money john kerri had which is bs. >> that's right. >> there was story after story after story about john kerri and teresa heinz and the money and homes they had. that kind of stuff. >> one month out from the elec

that bill maher is going to be on the losing end of that. >> he bought a piece of the new york mets and the new york times glowing story about the purchase. and rush limbaugh tried to buy i think a piece of the rams and got hammered and basically told by the nfl he couldn't do it, why? >> the whole new york times piece was dilutional, actually, it described a person that does not exist. there's a description of bill maher that has no connection to reality, including, atheism, a part of the theme and he's a libertarian? he's an obama supporter, a liberal. i thought maybe they meant lieb lieb liebertine, but he says the most vile things and the idea that he would get a glowing profile is disturbing. >> jon: we have to take one more back. more back. h. [ male announcer ] introducing a powerful weapon in your fight against bugs. ortho home defense max. with a new continuous spray wand. and a fast acting formula. so you can kill bugs inside, and keep bugs out. guaranteed. ortho home defense max. you know that comes with a private island? really? no. it comes with a hat. see, airline credit cards promise flight

times. (laughter) the only thing, the only thing this article proves is that every section of the "new york times" is out to get mitt romney. i mean just look at today's style section. putting together the perfect look that screams jerk. or just look at dining in, romney puts sill ant ro on his guocamole, what an [bleep]. but i don't know, i don't know, i don't know, i don't know, folks. i shouldn't be surprised, i guess. this country has never been more divided. a recent poll by pew research found that americans are more polarized along partisan lines than at any point in the last 25 years. i just can't take it anymore. how did we end up here. where is our sense of community. that recognition of our shared values that we had during world war ii that allowed us to come together as a nation and in turn inter those japanese americans. isn't there something, anything that all americans request agree on? well, folks, i may have found it. it's this video of a tea cup pig named hamlet, going down the stairs for a bowl of oatmeal. and it may be the most important piece of footage you see this year.

something called hypocrisy you see the way the new york times put this story together was by speaking with current and former american european and israeli officials involved in the program as well as a range of outside experts and they did all of this over the range of the last eighteen months and as usual nobody will allow would allow their names to be used because the times wrote the effort remains highly classified and parts of it continue to this day so what you have is another report based on anonymous sources delving out classified information and everyone totally cool of it and the white house is cool with it because i'm sure that they approved of the story coming out because if they haven't noticed lately with the whole kill list thing they have really been keen on getting the word out getting the articles written the portray the president as a total bad ass signing off on executions waging cyber warfare by launching the most sophisticated computer virus of all time oh and how can we forget he also got bin laden now clearly i'm being a little sarcastic here i think you all kn

this is the nay mouse "new york times" -- the right wing tell you that the "new york times" is a big,gives democrats a break and never nice to republicans. let me show you the bush headlines. reporting progress on iraq resolution. next one, yeah. praises veteran of normandy. front page stories. by the way. bush on special day greets new iraqi leader. take a look at barack obama, the same time as george bush. in the next administration. a new clash in congress on the gun case gone wrong. pressing for a leak inquiry. >> eric: wow! that is so mean i can't believe they said that about obama. terrible. >> bob: i knew you'd mock it. explain it to me. >> eric: the viewers are sitting there going what in the hell are you talking about? >> greg: the most amazing media analysis i've heard. >> eric: this morning, sent an e-mail to all of us saying listen, topic pitch. i are never seen a president running for re-election than rougher press than obama. have fair and balanced shall we for once. this is what you come up with? >> bob: i could have come up more. i was coming up with bill clinton and h

i loved "the new york times" insanely. i love "the new york times" the way some people love, i don't know, the significant other in their life. i think it is now and has during my lifetime pretty much always been the newspaper of record. now it's not only the country's greatest newspaper, it's the country's greatest newspaper web site which i think is an amazing accomplishment. um, but i think it's a mistake to think that it's all there is to life. um, i started in new york city as a tabloid reporter at "the new york post" when it was owned by a woman named dorothy schiff. and i had the time of my life there. working for a tabloid is so much fun be, and it's forgiving. and the times is unforgiving because of what it is, because of who reads it. um, so i always thought that someday again i would have a life outside the times, and i also believed that most opinion columnists, most pundits stay too long. they stay to the point that readers open the paper in the morning and say, oh, that again. and i never wanted anyone to say,

in the new york times piece last week, u.s. ls are still climbing the number of civilians who died during president obama as time in office is in the single digits, is under 10. it is our understanding perhaps 200 civilians have died in pakistan, including at least 60 children. so the gulf between the media's understanding and what the cia and one house continue to claim is actually growing bigger, not smaller. >> can you talk about the difference in reaction in britain and the united states? i mean, was this big headline, what has come out in the u.s., it is not really know very much among the general population, but it was a big story in "new york times" about the kill list. >> the kill list got heavy coverage here. what is interesting, it is not a classic left/right issue. everyone has expressed significant concern about the existence of the kill list, the idea of this level of executive power. questions being asked here now because the u.k. as a partner with the u.s. in the drone program, the u.k. drones pilots said alongsid

could actually retaliate with withrow weapons and now we find out last week from the new york times that the u.s. government is actually engaged in cyber attacks against iran and president obama according to the new york times is it has been acutely aware of this situation where we're setting precedent for other nations and that's where the real problem lies because we've been criticizing china for allegedly attacking united states companies and u.s. governments while the same time engaging in this in the in the same conduct with other countries and so this could pull open up a huge new can of worms and as the new york times pointed out this is a similar situation the u.s. faced the one nine hundred forty s. when it was developing and tom a bomb it's really important that we set guidelines and limits to how we act and react in that in these situations because it could have huge effects in the future . sure what do you think about the ramping up of cyber terrorism as this giant threat i mean we saw robert mueller come out and say that that's going to be surpassed terrorism as the number o

he also had a very important cover story in "the new york times magazine" two months before the iraq war started. the headline on "the new york times magazine" on this piece was the american empire, get used to it. so this -- in 2004 get a book come out with a not so great timing. the book was called the lesser evil and in that book he made a very nuanced, quite sophisticated case they gave of -- faith to torture and other violations of civil liberties carrying out during the war on terror but unfortunately for michael ignatieff that all came out exactly the same month of the photos from abu ghraib of torture and systemic abuse taking place in iraqi prisons by u.s. soldiers came out of the same time that the lesser evil is published and this led many of his colleagues in academic community, important voices in the annie started to criticize him and he was labeled as one of george bush's useful idiots in the war on terror. because of the way he provided the intellectual space and justification for torture and other civil liberties. unfortunately for canada, the country that i come from

we'll be right back with that in a moment. >> laura: in the back of the book segment tonight, the "new york times" has taken character seeks to a whole new level. during a lament about the state of public discourse in america. "times" columnist charles blow compared conservatives and republicans to the bullies who tormented an elderly bus monitor in upstate, new york writing, quote: this kind of behavior is not isolated to children and school buses in suburban communities. it stretches to the upper reaches of society. whether it is a republic debate audience booing a gay soldier or rush limbaugh's vicious attack on a female georgetown law student or newt gingrich has become boilerplate. target your enemy and torture mercilessly unquote. we invited mr. blow on the show but is he apparently hiding under his desk. devout liberal and "the washington post" contributing editor and friend cathy roux joins us from new york. cathy, we don't really know if charles blow is hiding under his desk. >> right. >> laura: we also believe in humor still in the united states at least i thought so. cathy, i read this

it is interesting to actually listen to what the "new york times" is saying about it. d david sanger on friday say the notion that stuff is just handed, i'm sitting and having an iced tea and get a call from the white house is pretty ridiculous. i have to take them at their word. >> the "new york times" certainly has pushed back and said this is good reporting, this is not a leak, this is not someone handing us on a plate. to some degree, you have to listen to what the "new york times" says but nicolle, senator john mccain has been tenacious about this and some people have said well, it's the republicans are using this for political gain, to assert that the president isn't in control of his national security apparatus. what do you make of that? >> my other former boss, george w. bush, i worked in the white house for almost six years where the dissemination of classified information to the "new york times" and others is not something that's just fodder for our discussion here today, but it's actually something that lives are in jeopardy, sources and methods are in jeopar

we want to discuss the concerns with scott shane of "the new york times." some of these latest details. thank you so much for joining us. >> glad to be here. >> is "the new york times" leaking dangerous information? >> of course "the new york times" doesn't leak, "the new york times" reports on the actions of government. i think what i wrote about was the president's counterterrorism record. president obama is running for re-election and we took a hard look at his counterterrorism record. the centerpiece of that has been the drone strikes against al qaeda and pakistan and in yemen. i think in some ways the striking thing about the drone program is that it is still considered officially to be classified. the president and other senior officials, leon panetta, secretary of defense, have spoken about it publically. it's reported constantly in the pakistani press, yemeni press and american press. the strange thing about the fact it is still classified, members of congress are the only ones who can't talk about this in public. so to consider it a leak to talk abo

either the new york times or the white house is wrong. the president is denying it. it. new york time said three dozen sources in the administration and outside of the administration. one of the two is incorrect. that's why we need an independent investigation and outside of the chain of command. not just eric holder who will check the box and go through the process. it is likely somewhere in the white house and also the defense department. successful take out from the pirates and take down of bin laden and successful to a degree surge of the troop in afghanistan. military is a big plus for president obama. how does that sit with you knowing that the president saw the cutting back of the defense department and sittingly idily when we are getting hit with sequester that cuts the budget. >> i will give credit where credit is due. when he pulls the trigger, the president deserves credit for that. he talks about my white house and my planning. he doesn't give the credibility to the people on the ground giving it done . top line things with budget or surge in afghanistan a

and you mentioned the new york times. i see this really a loop role of media bias here. and the headlines in an editorial this week, it's a pointless, partisan fight. not only that the new york times is making holder out to be the victim here. he has misled congress and somehow, holder is now a victim of what is going on, when really he should have had these documents come forth to get to the bottom of what's going on here. >> rick: ellen? >> well, i think this got a huge amount of coverage and again, it may not be the kind of conservative coverage that people thought it ought to get, but this whole idea, no one has been prosecuted for 35 years when there's been contempt. and i mean, and that was pointed out, actually by riotest. >> what congress wants to do is get to the bottom of this. try telling what you just said to the parents of brian terry. they want to know what happened and no one is being held accountable. >> jon: and let's focus on the coverage though. and jim, we hear a lot of talks about politics, but of course this has to do with politics because it's elect