i'm brian stelter. it's time for "reliable sources." this morning we're covering two big stories. the baffling mystery that has obsessed so many of us this week. in happened to malaysian flight air 370. decision day in crimea where tensions are rising as people vote on whether to return to russia. one of the finest aviation journalists speaking for the first time about what he thinks about this missing plane. bob hager spent decades covering these baffling mysteries for nbc news, he saw them all. saw every detail and he knows firsthand how obsessed reporters can get as they struggle to figure out seemingly unsolvable tragedies. bob, thank you for joining me. >> sure enough. glad to be with you. >> you've been traveling this week so we haven't seen you on television the way people are used to seeing you during previous plane mysteries like this one. from everything you've seen, from everything you've heard, what do you think happened? >> can't tell so much. there's such a lack of information. i'm going t

i'm brian stelter. today on "reliable sources" i've invited some of the best media experts i know to examine the continuing coverage of malaysia air flight 370. i'm eager to hear what you think too. this has been a story unlike any other. frightening, riveting, heartwrenching and baffling and there's still no ending in sight. but up first, cnn. has been covering the missing malaysian airplane around the clock, that's no news to most of you watching at home, and the coverage has brought this network lots of praise, lots of viewers, but thumb's down from some media watchers. one of the harshest critic has been the king of cable news, bill o'reilly, who seems to hate the wall-to-wall coverage. watch this. >> i -- when i'm watching this i'm like throwing -- i'm upset about it. i know i'm old school, but i know it's ratings. obviously it's ratings, people want to watch the mystery, but it's now corrupting the news business, i think. >> on the bright side for mr. o'reilly, though, this has given him opportuni

dana bash, brian stelter, thank you so much.ryan did put that statement on facebook for everyone to see. you'll have much of more on brian stelter on reliable sources this sunday, 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific time. >>> in our final thought, an interesting tribute, a tribute to a man who made a huge contribution to baseball without ever hitting a pitch or stealing a base. it came in the operating room. what did he do? he invented a type of surgery. dr. frank job died yesterday in santa monica at the age of 88. he was an orthopedic surgeon who pioneered tommy john surgery. tommy john, it looked like his career was over after he had a serious elbow injury, a ligament in his throwing arm snapped in 1974. but dr. job, this man, took a chance, and performed a ligament transplant, took a ligament from his forearm, put it in his elbow, and a year later, tommy john came back as good as new. in some cases, even better. john pitched 14 more years. more than 1,000 major league players have had that surgery over the years. this doct

i'm brian stelter.e who love tv news know if you want a conservative point of view turn on fox, liberals turn on msnbc. it's simple, right? well, except you can find democrats on fox and you can find republicans on msnbc. just in different ways. it was an interesting piece in the columbia journalism review about this week. i want to read a quote from it. while the liberal hosts of msnbc often secure conservatives those debates happen with villains not in the studio, lamb basted by proxy in news clips. in fox they happen in person with a real live liberal who is often on staff. it got us thinking about what it is like at fox and msnbc when guests or commentators are in enemy territory. i wanted to bring on two people who know about that. sally kohn a left leaning community organizer, that job title used against you at fox and at cnn, she' peered on fox until a few months ago and ben ferguson a conservative talk radio show in dallas who appears on cnn regularly but in the past before signed at cnn he refu

i'm brian stelter, i have a jam packed "reliable sources" ahead for you. here's what's coming up.it. >> i am resigning. i probably won't be taking any trips to russia any time soon. >> the real story of how russia pumps propaganda into your living room. and speaking of tough jobs, how would you like to be a democrat working at

"reliable sources" with brian stelter starts after this check of our top stories. >>> malaysia is revealing now examining a flight simulator taken from the home of the pilot. no word on what they've discovered but they will be looking to see if pilot practiced the same path. a u.s. official tells cnn u.s. intelligence is leaning toward the theory that pilots are responsible. >>> the search area has expanded to cover large areas of land includingxt

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i'm joined by our correspondent brian stelter. i did that interview. was told she was reading from notes she had. what do you make of this resignation. she worked at rt america two and a half years. this is not new to her this is a russian controlled network that has a clear and obvious agenda. >> that's absolutely right this. channel produces this kind of news and content every single day. of course it's getting more attention now because of the current crisis. people are noticing. people in the united states are noticing the channel more. they're scrutinizing the channel more. it's fair to ask whether she decided to resign now on air to get out of the way before too much damage was done to her reputation. if you are on a channel obstetrics obscure bringing up things that are uncomfortable and no one is watching, that's one thing. if you're on a channel getting attention that's another thing. she got out of the way. >> she was the first anchor to criticize the coverage. the first anchor didn't quit but criticized actions in crimea. someone could say s

cnn's senior media correspondent brian stelter says the event is unprecedented and unlike any plane storythe fact that the plane still hasn't been found. it becomes a bigger mystery as it goes. [ speaking foreign language ] >> reporter: the mysteries behind that disappearance are so mind-boggling that no matter what your nationality, everybody's interested in what happened to that plane. >> reporter: with four missing french passengers on board mh-370, the story has been front-page news in france, says french anchor thomas misrachi, the interest undoubtedly fueled by the parallels to the disappearance of air france flight 447, which crashed off the coast of brazil nearly five years ago. though some debris was spotted on early in the search, it took almost two years to recover the voice and flight data recorders. >> obviously, for any news organization, it's a big problem to talk about a story with so little information. >> we begin with the latest on the search for the missing malaysian airlines flight -- >> reporter: with chinese nationals aboard, it's been especially difficult for china