celebrity gossip and trivia and info entertainment or if it purports to do news the way fox news does or m s n b c it's so partisan in his coverage that it will harm the power interests that it serves so the n.d.a. case was never mentioned. because the primary purpose of m s n b c was to reelect barack obama and the n.b.a. case would not make obama look good it wasn't mentioned on fox because fox. you know this section of the n.b.a. has bipartisan support and it's interesting i worked for the new york times for fifteen years that the only established news organization that responsibly covered the case was the new york times and when judge forrest issued a ruling the new york times ran an editorial supporting our decision because the times still i mean it's an elitist organizations and i have my critiques of the times but nevertheless it still understands what is news and what is not. but that for me was a kind of frightening moment because i realized how deteriorated our systems of information become absolutely yeah i love how people say oh there is there's no bipartisan support we'll look at thin

and michelle at the head table it's not just fox it's every corporate news entity from reuters to m s n b c but the costly dinner is the most absurd part of all of this the lavish parties hosted by these same media organizations that according to the washington post will shell out as much as two hundred thousand dollars each to entertain their of the guest list that's right well they're laying people off in droves and cutting corners and journalistic integrity they're dropping mad g.'s to spend a night couldn't believe that the rich and famous and of course these mainstream bashes wouldn't be nearly as good without the financial backing of their corporate sponsors for example and this n.b.c.'s party was funded by starbucks smart water and mercedes-benz and d.c.'s premier publication politico posted an event featuring represent. it's from corporations like eighteen t. bank of america coca-cola chevron goldman sachs and defense contractor northrop grumman but the most unusual gathering of them all has to be the atlantic publishers' pre-dinner party which hosted an exclusive preview of a natio

than just for entertainment well rachel maddow is one of those people she's a seasoned anchor at m s n b c who has a powerful presentation and has made some epic rants however she also wouldn't be where she is if she didn't serve a particular role for the establishment and as critical as she may be obama from time to time at the end of the day she's there to promote the democratic party which she does quite well by not only conducting softball interviews with prominent politicians but by fear mongering her audience constantly about the g.o.p. now i'm not saying that the republican party doesn't deserve ridicule what i am saying is that both parties are equally complicit in the disastrous policies that are destroying this country but recently maddow has gone beyond her usual partisan politics it is connecting obscure dots to make some pretty startling conclusions in the wake of the boston bombings. headline and i think also in some ways the bottom line of the boston marathon bombing has been that the reason for the bombing was radical islam that the bombers were inspired by the online al qa

and michelle at the head table it's not just fox it's every corporate news entity from reuters to m s n b c but the costly dinner is that the most absurd part of all of this the lavish parties hosted by these same media organizations that according to the washington post will shell out as much as two hundred thousand dollars each to entertain their of the guest list that's right well they're laying people off in droves and cutting corners and journalistic integrity they're dropping mad g.'s to spend a night. with the rich and famous and of course these mainstream bashes wouldn't be nearly as good without the financial backing of their corporate sponsors for example and it's n.b.c.'s party was funded by starbucks smart water and mercedes-benz and d.c.'s premier publication politico posted an event featuring representatives from corporations like eighteen t. bank of america coca-cola chevron goldman sachs and defense contractor northrop grumman but the most unusual gathering of them all has to be the atlantic publishers pre-dinner party which hosted an exclusive preview of a national gallery

the declining faith of the american people and its competitors in the mainstream news last month m s n b c s ratings plunged to their lowest level since two thousand and seven and after fox news's disastrous election night coverage and faith in so-called political experts who thought romney would win the election fox news saw its ratings plummet at the beginning of the year to in january fox all its lowest ratings since two thousand and one and as for c.n.n. well as long as there aren't any high profile murder trials then no one is really watching c.n.n. anyway last year gallup gave the largest indictment of the mainstream news networks showing up. an all time high of americans sixty percent have little or no trust in the media to accurately report the news so what does all this mean but it means al jazeera america is jumping into an environment filled with decaying news networks and audiences looking for alternatives so can they become one of those alternatives well we'll have to wait and see in washington same sex are two. well switzerland has a new tourist attraction to bring visitors t

too true and like you just said i mean years later all these things are validated i mean look at m s n b c ten years after the iraq war saying how we were all duped i mean they were part of the duping so it's amazing to see you know as it's mainstream we all know these things now it's easy to come out and say you know what happened we were all sold this war but roseanne weeks ago you tweeted something you said failed senate failed congress failed executive branch failed to prove court people look at this and they agree with you and they say you know this corruption this blatant corruption is why we need less government what do you say to those people. while those people to say they want less cover. men are just a bunch of liars because you know they're trying to get the government on the backs of all the gays right now so they do not have fact want less government at all they want more government and it's funny that the whole time they're trying to amp up the government on everybody's personal freedoms and civil rights they're talking about they want less government but you can't have it b

watching m s n b c that's that's that's part of it people now tend to live in areas where there are like minded people i mean there are some political demographers and geographers who have looked at this and there is a kind of what they call sorting out geographically where people live. but there also is this this ability to now live in a world in which you get and give information from like minded people or from like minded sources and so if you if you if you want to go through life without having your views challenge it in a way you can easily do that and in fact that tends to reinforce the attitudes that people have so the degree to which the media has fractured i mean there's no there's no single media. operation that now has the kind of influence that we used to see you know three decades ago when it was n.b.c. a.b.c. and c.b.s. that created a community discussion in those days are long gone and so it has it has left us in a much different situation and and therefore those lines become rigid i don't know whether there's anything on the horizon that's going to move us away from that

media it's ridiculed i mean they literally do ridicule and scoff the idea just like when you're on m s n b c and the host asked do you really believe this i mean why is it that this obvious reality is either framed as friends or completely omitted from the discussion and i mean part of it is because we you know we don't have a lot of journalists that are going to these country. yes and talking to the people who have been declared as enemies by the united states government i mean what i found when i went to be on province in yemen and met with tribal people who are tribal leaders who are rather receiving end of the drone strikes these are people that level these are people that want osama bin laden to with you know in the terms of lindsey graham and all these other people they have every reason to be against al qaeda but we're giving them every reason to say well enemy of my enemy is my friend and you know blowback is i think inevitable you can't conduct these kinds of wars around the world killing innocent people in the pursuit of a few bad guys and pretend that it's not going to come back t

not american values no no none of those seems very strange to me speaking of the documentary c n n n m s n b c both say that they're going or n.b.c. rather both say that it would be imus and see the both say that they're coming out with documentaries about hillary clinton and. you do that and we're not going to show it we're not going to let you sponsor debates we want to show up at any debates that you sponsor for him seems to me that you know i mean if i was hillary clinton i'd be a little concerned the last time somebody made a documentary about her it was a group called citizens united and it was a hit piece and in fact they took all they went all over the supreme court to defend their right to show that before the election and ultimately won and or to run t.v. ads for the for the film that they could fill the film there was no prohibition on that and i mean how does how does she know how difference priebus know that the the c.n.n. piece in the n.b.c. piece you're not going to be hits on because it has happened i mean you're talking to c.n.n. and n.b.c. and they've kind of come out and s

important role that the new york times front page played in cranking up the invasion of iraq cable news m s n b c fox news c.n.n. but the editorial pages of the washington post was crucial in making the invasion of iraq possible that disaster so it's a far cry from watergate and pentagon papers to fred hiatt washington post he's still on board with pesos the amazon guy taking over the washington post and so it's the same team this this hallowed tradition of washing post journalism has been going down hill there's of course exceptions dana priest has done explosive stories in the last ten years including the cia's black sites you know the secret prisons it was you know that showed our war of our war on terror was in many ways a war of terror a war of kidnapping and many of the people we kidnapped and tortured were innocent so i see it as a real decline over a period of years and you educate your audience every day about the impact of not enforcement of anti-trust if a few corporations are going to take over the media you're going to get a media journalism that is a product that looks like it's it'

media at the college where he is an associate professor of journalism a former senior producer for m s n b c's donahue program he's appeared as a political commentator and national media and helped found both the media watch dog group fair fairness and accuracy in reporting as well as the activism site roots action dot org yep it's also the author of numerous books including his most recent cable news confidential my misadventures in corporate media jeff cohen welcome back to the program great to be with you know great to have you with us. let's start with you what got you started in media what drew you to media in the first place well the mainstream media almost killed me i grew up in the vietnam generation and i was on like most kids. thirteen fourteen fifteen i was a mainstream media junkie i would come home and watch the national news i would read time magazine and i was a complete war hawk and in junior high or early high school i wrote an essay attacking the football quarterback at the time joe namath because he wouldn't go and fight in vietnam and i said he won't go into offend his coun

the operative word is show it's entertainment and they need the stars i learned when i worked at m s n b c in the runup to the invasion of iraq that the reason they had to they despised and feared phil donahue and then terminated us three weeks before the invasion is because it was interfering with them getting the stars they couldn't book the secretaries of defense the secretaries of state the assistant secretaries of defense and state the heads and former heads of the cia because phil donahue was raising questions about the invasion of iraq and all the questions we raised turned out to be the right one and when you look at the mainstream media talk about the decline fred hiatt at the washington post who was so wrong on the invasion of iraq he's only gained more power he's still the editorial page editor of the washington post i know of no one in mainstream t.v. who lost their job or got sanctioned because they got the biggest foreign policy story of recent decades totally wrong the invasion of iraq these people almost all of them did but the phil donahue is people like me we were kicked

of our media is it that the republicans are all watching fox news the democrats are all watching m s n b c or that's that's that's part of it people now tend to live in areas where there are like minded people i mean there are some political demographers and geographers who have looked at this and there is a kind of what they call sorting out geographically where people live. but there also is this this ability to now live in a world in which you get and give information from like minded people or from like minded sources and so if you if you if you want to go through life without having your views challenge it any way you can easily do that and in fact that tends to reinforce attitudes that people have some of the degree to which the media has fractured i mean there's no there's no single media. operation that now has the kind of influence that we used to see you know three decades ago when it was n.b.c. a.b.c. and c.b.s. that created a community discussion in those days are long gone. so it has it has left us in a much different situation and therefore those lines become rigid i don't kn

b-c, sing with me! ♪ a-b-c-d-e-f-g ♪ h-i-j-k-l-m-n-o-p ♪ q-r-s and t-u-v ♪ w-x-y and z ♪ sing with me amazing alphabet singinge is the letter h? - [kids]: there! - there's the h! better already! now we need the letter a. where's the a? - [kids]: there! - there's the a! now we need the letter r. where is the r? - [kids]: there! - there's the r! last letter: we need the letter p. where's the p? - [kids]: there! - there's that p! h-a-r-p! harp! ♪ - oh, thank you! - lickety-letters! we built the word "harp" and fixed the harp! let's give ourselves a big thumbs up! - oh, goody! now i can get back to my harp song. ♪ this is my harp song! [others laughing] ♪ harp! harpy harp! ♪ harp! harpy harp! ♪ harp!! harpy harp!! - oh, gwennie, you're silly! - [laughing]: thanks. thank you. but, uh, i don't... think i want to be a minstrel. yeah, playing music at the castle is not the job for me. - oh, you're back! [kissing] ♪ i hope you find what you want to do ♪ - me toooooo! [laughing] oh... i still don't know what i want to do at the castle. [horse neighing] - ah! - woof! - whoa! what was that? - woof, woof! that's a knight.

b-c, sing with me! ♪ a b c d e f g ♪ h i j k l m n o p ♪ q r s and t u v ♪ w x y and z ♪ sing with me amazing alphabet singinga"? - [kids]: there! - there's the "a"! next, we need the letter "p". where's the "p"? - [kids]: there! - there's the "p"! now we need another "p"! where is the "p"? - [kids]: there! - there's that "p" again! now, where's the letter "l"? - [kids]: there! - there's the "l"! and we also need the "e". do you see the "e"? - [kids]: there! - yup, there's the "e"! where's the "s"? - [kids]: there! - a-p-p-l-e-s! "apples!" one, two, three, four, five, six. lickety letters! we got our six apples back! let's give ourselves a big thumbs up! - thanks, alpha pig! let's get these apples to the mayor for his party! [horse neighs] - you see a super letter? which one? - [kids]: "a!" - "a!" let's put it in our super duper... - [super why and kids]: computer! - better get it before the horse eats it! two more super letters and then we'll get our super story answer! right on, readers! - we're almost at the mayor's house... [phone ringing] uh-oh. [he clears his throat] hello? - ah, math-a-million! - whoa!

b-c, sing with me! - ♪ a-b-c-d-e-f-g ♪ h-i-j-k-l-m-n-o-p ♪ q-r-s and t-u-v ♪ w-u-x-y and z ♪ sing with me amazing alphabethe f? - [kids]: there! - there's the f! now we need an i. hmm, where's the i? - [kids]: there! - there's the i! now we need an n. uh, where's the n? - [kids]: there! - there it is! ok, the last letter is s. where's the s? - [kids]: there! - there it is! f-i-n-s. "fins." lickety-letters! we used the alphabet to make two fins! now bradbury can make puppy swimming-fins for robo-doggie. let's give ourselves a big thumbs up! - perfect! now, i'll take these two fins... and some, uh... straps. oh, a paperclip, and a straw... put another thing on top... and then... ta-da! puppy swimming-fins! - beep, boop. woof, woof, woof, woof! - now you can swim in the race! quick, quick, quick! go line up! - help us cheer! say, "go robo-doggie!" - beep-beep. reer! robots--reer, reer!-- ready, set, go! - [all]: go robo-doggie! go robo-doggie! go robo-doggie! - you did it, robo-doggie! [laughing] - woof! - great job, robo-doggie! you used your puppy swimming- fins to swim across the pool. come on! let's get

b-c, sing with me! ♪ a b c d e f g ♪ h i j k l m n o p ♪ q r s and t u v ♪ w x y and z ♪ sing with me amazing alphabet singing! "apples!" one, two, three, four, five, six. lickety letters! we got our six apples back! let's give ourselves a big thumbs up! - thanks, alpha pig! let's get these apples to the mayor for his party! [horse neighs] - you see a super letter? which one? - [kids]: "a!" - "a!" let's put it in our super duper... - [super why and kids]: computer! - better get it before the horse eats it! two more super letters and then we'll get our super story answer! right on, readers! - we're almost at the mayor's house... [phone ringing] uh-oh. [he clears his throat] hello? - ah, math-a-million! - whoa! - it's mayor all together. i have another math emergency! - ooh! busy day. - yes! i need balloons for my party! four green balloons... and five yellow balloons. heh-heh! and then i need to know how many balloons there are all together. - but why? - because i'm mayor all together, and i need to know how many balloons are all together! got it? good! goodbye! - super readers, the mayor needs balloons. lucki

(laughing) ♪ a-b-c-d-e-f-g ♪ h-i-j-k-l-m-n-o-p ♪ q-r-s-t-u-v ♪ w-x-y and z ♪ now i have all 26 ♪ thereo you see, jake, the addition, or subtraction, of a letter can really make a difference. mom: jake? you're being entirely too quiet in there. what are you up to? martha. how many times do i have to tell you? human babies learn to talk as they get older, not from eating soup. here, let me help. i hate to see a single letter go to waste. (jake laughing) martha: addition and subtraction are simple. when you subtract, you take something away, and you have less. when you add, you put something in, and you have more. watch. see how there are fewer biscuits? i subtracted one from the table and added it to my belly. (whimpering) i've subtracted another biscuit. my belly is really happy to have that additional biscuit. subtraction-- i'm reducing the biscuits on the table; addition-- i'm putting more biscuits in my belly. (munching) (gasps) helen?! i'm going to need additional biscuits. a puddle of water... (laughing) a yard full of mud, and thou. i tell you, skits, it doesn't get any better tha