we also want to bring in marc whitacre from our washington newsroom. marc, we'll begin with you, do you see any nexus between these two stories? is this what the new era looks like, and in plain english, what is going on do you think? >> brian, let's not forget, this is nothing new. any time we have a story in this country involving race, reverse racism, it becomes very volatile. there are three factors here that have made these stories even more intense. one is, we have a black president for the first time. and rightly or wrongly, there are people in this country who wonder whether that affects his view of these kinds of issues. the second is, we have a terrible economy. every time people think the pie is shrinking, these stories take on bigger importance and more anger. and finally, we have this web culture now, you know, where mark twain said a century ago, a lie can make its way halfway around the world before the truth has its shoes on. that's just been intensified, both in terms of the viral nature of these stories, but also the potential to edit