down together yesterday. >> lauren ashburn and howard kurtz welcome back. >> thank you. brown: we talked a lot during the campaign about this notion of using social media for the president and mitt romney, for that matter, to reach out. lauren, what are they doing now with this new morphed organization? >> well, this o.f.a., which is essentially all of the campaigns -- social media, facebook, twitter -- all of that apparatus is now going to be used for issues, for immigration, for gun control, for a variety of issues that the obama administration is is trying to push. >> but the question is, lauren, can... even though the o.f.a. has gotten the 33 million facebook friends and 22 million twitter followers and so on, can it galvanize the kind of grass roots support that it did during a campaign when you had a definite opponent in mitt romney and not just... >> brown: exactly. the question is, what are they asking people to do? during a campaign it's vote for me and get your friends to vote for me. >> right. brown: what do they ask now? it's give me $5 and give me your email

editors three months later did not produce their own explanation but allowed chief media reporter howard kurtz to write a lengthy critique editors and reporters admitted that they often perform poorly because but it but offered one excuse after another that article was pulled from the publication and that actually earned a lot of criticize the criticism for from the for the paper and speculation as to some of the more nefarious reasons for nixon the piece but the washington post outlook editor carlos a little dasa claimed that the reason he held the article wasn't actually a result of the criticism his paper suffered in the article in a statement from huffington post he said quote the notion that we were somehow seeking to protect the post or the media at large by not running mr mitchell's piece is misinformed we were well aware of his critical perspectives on the media's role in the iraq war given his book and frequent writings on the subject so if the paper was already aware of mr mitchell's perspective why did commission the op ed in the first place just for some food for thought on this mo

welcome, howard kurtz of cnn's reliable sources, and newsweek's daily beast.n ashburn of the daily download and author of "the secrets of happy families." and bruce feller. we saw black smoke rising above the chapel at sistine chapel. 115inal electors. two unsuccessful votes. cardinals will return in 3 1/2 hours for the afternoon vote. 12:30 eastern is the next time we could see a smoke signal. if they fail to choose a pontiff, voting concludes at 2:00 p.m. for the day. let's go to chris cuomo in rome. >> reporter: how are you? three votes, no pope. okay? that was somewhat anticipated. john allen has been saying that today is somewhat like the super tuesday when it comes to the conclave. a leader will have to show they could get 77 votes or they either show or go and maybe they start discussing new names altogether. we are in what could be the most important period of the day, not just because they get to eat lunch and have a little proposal or rest. this is when they can meet, when they can talk, when they can have the types of hard discussions to clarify the

that's what we'll get. >> senator, it's howard kurtz.someone captured alive, mostly we kill these people while we can. you crossed party lines to join senator rand paul in that filibuster slowing up john brennan's nomination because you were concerned about drones. i know you think you made your point. you must have gotten a lot of blowback from fellow democrats from joining conservative rand paul. >> not too much. there is a sense there is a new political movement emerging in our country and it crosses party lines and it is all about americans who want to see policymakers strike a better balance between protecting our security and protecting our liberty, and certainly over the last few weeks, americans have seen there is a sharp difference between protecting secret intelligence operations and not keeping our laws which are public secret, and that's the information we've gotten out. i'd like to note as part of those negotiations over getting those documents, i insisted that the obama administration answer those questions rand paul was as

i'm howard kurtz and this is "reliable sources." >>> it didn't take a ph.d. to figure out that things were strained between jay leno and nbc bosses when he took flack for jokes like this. >> the rating are bad. >> how bad. >> the biggest loser isn't just a tv show any more. it's our new motto. that's how bad it is. >> word leaked to the "hollywood reporter" and now nbc plans to drop leno towards the end of 2014 and hand "tonight show" to jimmy fallon. >> before we get started i have to talk about the rumors that came out today that says i'll be moving up to 11:30 or as my parents call it, still too late. actually, the rumors are true. nbc is turning "tonight show" into a diving competition. >> if this remind you of when nbc kicked leno off "tonight show" in favor of conan o'brien and, those were the days. >> hosting "tonight show" has been the fulfillment of life-long dream for me and to the kids out there watching, you can do anything you want in life. yeah. unless jay leno wants to do it, too. >> but that, as you recall, turned into a full-fledge debac deba

i'm howard kurtz and this is "reliable sources." >>> we are standing by for news conference in kaufman, texas, that is expected to start any minute about the shooting death of mike mclelland and his wife, cynthia, in their home yesterday. just two months after his deputy was fatally shot. we'll bring that press conference to you when it happens. >>> it is hard to imagine television without barbara walters. she was the first female star on "today" show and first woman to co-anchor a newscast on nbc. >> good evening, i'm harry at abc election headquarters. with me barbara walters and howard k. smith and we'll be here for how long it takes to determine exactly what happened tonight. >> she landed countless big interviews over the years with everyone from world leaders to celebrities. >> yes. >> do you drink too much? in our country, we read that you are unstable. we read that you are mad. what kind of a tree are you? because you think you are a tree now. >> everybody would like to be an oak tree. >> mr. president, your supporters say you saved the banking industry from collapse. you saved

now to howard kurtz and "reliable sources." >>> let me introduce fred francis and founder of 15seconds.com and lauren ashburn, editor of dailydownl d dailydownload.com. we just saw the steubenville verdict. trent mays one of the kids just convicted in this case tweeted pictures from that night when all of these guys surrounded and we've all seen that photo. we can put it up on the screen of the woman looking drunk and unconscious. he tweeted this himself. what is the reaction on social media with the two convictions this morning? >> pretty harsh towards these two boys. enjoy jail, you blank, see you in the joint. can't wait it meet you, i mean, beat you. a little others higher brow saying this is a victory for the college life movement. which is basically saying that, you know, they don't want drunken parties like this and girls to be taken advantage of. and that this speaks volumes for potential victims. >> and, you know, some of those pictures might not have been carried by the traditional media and why social media is such an important pipeline now. let me turn to the world of televisio

i'm howard kurtz and this is "reliable sources." >>> bob woodward has been embroiled in controversy since he and carl bernstein were unearthic the watergate scandal, but this one is different. president obama was wrong in insisting that the white house didn't suggest the automatic budget cuts before the republicans agreed to them. then woodward accused the president of changing his stance on whether the current round of budget cuts would include tax increases, as well as spending cuts. >> you talk about the president moving the goal posts. what do you add? >> he was absolutely desperate to get something. so, he got his benefit and now he wants to come back and say, wait a minute, let's put some taxes in here which he agreed in the sequester not to do. >> the evidence on that point is mixed. but woodward doubled down by disclosing that a top white house official had yelled at him in a lengthy phone call and then e-mailed that woodward would "regret taking this position." when politico obtained the actual e-mail the tone was, well, less than threatening and that became a story in itself. >>

cnn's howard kurtz says that she is such an icon, it is hard to imagine television without her.says that wamenters will step down may 2014. she wants to announce it on her own terms. i remember seeing her at a restaurant about a year ago and she looked amazing. >>> it has been 602 days since the u.s. lost its top credit rating. stocks wrapped up an impressive first quarter today. the s&p 500 at a new high. it hasn't been at this level since 2007. investors are still worried. they're watching cyprus. little cyprus. >>> and now to breaking news. in the aurora shooting case. prosecutors just responded to an offer from the defense team for the accused shooter james holmes to plead guilty to the shootings that killed 12. jim spellman is going through the documents. jim, what have you learned? i know you haven't had a lot of time. what have you learned? >> reporter: let me set the stage very quickly for you, erin. a couple of weeks ago james holmes was in court and expected to enter a plea. he said i'm not ready. we will not enter a plea. the judge entered a plea for them of not guilt

i'm howard kurtz we're back here next sunday morning. the verdict is coming down this morning, cnn has been covering it. we'll follow this throughout the day. candy crowley will give us an update in just a moment. "state of the union" begins right now. >>> i'm candy crowley in washington. the two top members of the house intelligence committees are just ahead. but, first, a breaking story we're following. two star high school football players in steubenville, ohio, were found guilty of raping a 16-year-old west virginia teenager. they both wept and addressed the court after a juvenile court judge issued his verdict. i want to bring in now our poppy har harlow who has been following the trial in steubenville. poppy? >> i am. hi, candy, i'm with bob fits simmons. the civil attorney for the victim in this case. we're not naming the victim. cnn's policy not to do that. but he was in the courtroom for all four days of this trial. i was there for the entire thing, as well. i watched you watch very closely the testimony of 28 witnesses. first q

howard kurtz, and lauren ashburn, contributor for the daily beast and editor in chief for the daily downloadto have you on this side of the table. >> miss that side. >> that's all right. john will give you a shot at it a little bit later. in the next two months, the u.s. agriculture department is expected to approve a horse slaughters plant in roswell, new mexico, so equine meat can be produced in this country. this after the valley meat company sued the usda over the lack of inspection services for horses going to slaughter, according to a spokesperson, the obama administration has been trying to get congress to reinstate a ban since 2011. all of this considering a lot of the conversation we've had over the past week, plus, has been about this horse meat showing up in products that were not supposed to have horse meat in them. >> what is the market? i understand buffalo was the hot meat for a while. are a lot of people dieing to go to mcdonald's to get a horsey burger? >> here in this country, we have a hugic factor. but in lot of countries, people have horse meat. depending on how they get

. >> let's talk about the late-night shake up with howard kurtz. and lawyorne ashburn.u know, don't like jay leno, so everybody saying get him off the stage. bring in jimmy fallon, but the fact is, he's still number one and brings in viewers. >> he was funny once a couple of years ago. >> a couple of decades ago? >> the people have spoken yes in the ratens, but there is this feeling among younger folks that he is not that funny and twitter proved it. remember that time when jay leno was funny? oh, wait. that never happened. carry on. weren't angry tweets on twitter, but this feeling -- >> wait a second. younger people liked conan and they chose sides. that didn't work out when conan took over the "tonight show." the secret is a broad audience, not just people who are 22. >> it used to be leno, letterman, the two people, same ages, competing against each other, now it's fallon/kimmel. it's their turn. i like jay, but this is a guy who on his vacation goes and does standup. enough. enough. time to cede to the next generation. >> the start date of the new show, 2014. septe