years ago, veterans might still be dealing with the horrors at walter reed hospital and "the philadelphia inquirer" uncovered corruption by a big state senator up there which just resulted in 137 count conviction in federal court. bob, who's going to do the dirty work, catch the bad guys? >> i still think it will be the newspapers. they'll find those business models that work, thatctually make money. but the issue here is not just getting -- vegging the priests and the a-- investigating the priests and the abuse and neglted veterans and so forth, but kind of establishes the moral authority of the newspaper. chris: what if the globe is gone? we've seen a rocky mountain paper, seattle, what happens when a town lacks a broad sheet with some clout? >> somebody will come along and do it. there's this outfit, i don't know the name, in san diego, calirnia, that all online, they do serious investigations. they cover the daley story. and they pay living wages to journalists. chris: will online do it? will your operation? >> absolutely. it's a question of resources and the will. there's a lot of rigor onlin

i am now a reporter at "the philadelphia inquirer" which is one of the top 10 newspapers in the countryhere is a program that comes on a and the that is several of the rock and ended in mentions bumpy johnson a notorious harlem gangster who is rumored to have helped with the only successful escape from alcatraz and i am talking to my daughter but i am listening but not looking at the program so then something happened and i jus happened to look up and they were showing a picture of bumpy johnson and i was my mr. johnson. and as soon as i saw it i thought of course, it is bumpy johnson, mr. johnson is bumpy johnson. so then i had to investigate. i felt compelled. my journalistic and uses kicked him. i thought of it day she started to do research and interviews and all kinds of events this schaumburg became my second home. one of the people that i talk to was dr. john henry clarke [applause] he knew bumpy johnson and the things that i wanted to know from him more than anything what bumpy was like because this time i was wanting to know was what was wrong with me? how can i admire this man

johnson, i went to school, made something of myself, and i was w a reportert the philadelphia inquirehich is one of the top ten newspapers in the coury. and as a program that comes on. on a&e that has the riddle of the rock. in it it mentions buppy johnson the harlem gangster who is rumored to have the only successful escape from al coo razz. so i'm listening but not looking. i justapne to loo up as they were showing a picture. it was my mr. johnson. and as soon as i saw it, i was like of course it's buppy johnson. my mr. johnson is buppy johnson. i had to invent gait. my journalistic juices kicd in. i started doing research and entities. i started doing all kinds of the schomburg became my second home. one of the people that i talked was dr. henry. you know who he is? okay. yes, please have a hand of applause for that beautul ancestor of ours. he knew buppy johnson. the thing that i wanted to know more than anything because by this time i had all these interviews and research. what i wanted to know from him was, well, what was wrong with me? how could you admire this man that i know

>> i was a columnist for four years from '03 to eight '07 and worked for the philadelphia inquirer. it's going to be tough, have a lot of people coming down on him. right now the tenor as i would term it is against michael vick. they're not happy with the philadelphia eagles organization. but that's nothing a touchdown, a sprint, assisting donovan mcnabb and the eagles towards capturing the super bowl will not cure. >> that is the city of brotherly love, is it not? >> oh, that's what you'd like to call it. i call it a few other things. but they are one of the best sports cities in america. >> all right, stephen a. smith, always a pleasure, thanks for joining us to be night. >>> we asked what you thought. are you ready to give michael vick a second chance? 75% of you said yes. 25% of you said no. >>> coming up, sarah palin, michelle bachmann, and john edwards. only one woman has a stomach strong enough to handle all of these topics. lizz winstead is next on "the ed show." [ female announcer ] give your eyes the attention they deserve with covergirl exact eyelights. mascara with light

smith, journalist, with espn, with me at cnnsi, and with the "philadelphia inquirer." 13 years. he knows this teams, he knows the fans as well. we'll take your calls. before we go on, we got a brief snippet what fans are saying about the signing. let's listen to that and we'll take it from there. >> the guy has something he's going to bring to the team, make us better. so what? >> he's a great football player. >> whatever happened, he's done with it, he served his time. >> i'm just a little upset with it, because i'm such an animal lover. >> i'm not sure where we're going with this team. >> crazy signing. i don't know what they're going to do with the public relations part of it. >> all right. kind of mixed there. those are fans in philly. we want to hear from you, 1-877-tell-hln is the number. anthony, thumbs up or thumbs down on this from the fans? >> i think mostly thumbs down. >> really? >> yeah. i would look at it as a moderate uprising. hasn't been an all-out revolt. but fans haven't welcomed michael vick with open arms. >> any specifics on what they're saying? they just d

. >> the panel was covered by the philadelphia inquirer and the headlines spebtor sess tack make spitches. he tells activists he was working hard to support obama's health plan. sess tack links thoim bush. c-span also cord your discussion and wemmed we would like to show the audience a little bit of what happened there and we will continue our discussion. >> this is kind of an odd question but i think it's something that comes up a lot here at this conference. and it's what i would call the net roots will you still love me tomorrow syndrome. of, you know, we go out on dates with candidates, they say all the right things. they buy us dinner and tell us we're pretty. and then it's all they can do to get as far as away from us as possible. we're kind of like the girl that they had under the bleachers but won't take to the prom. >> so what was the response of representative sesstak and senator specterer regarding that sort of romantic kind of allution that you made to politics? >> this was during the second half. they weren't on the stage same. and this happened during joe sesstak's segment.

another article this morning from the philadelphia -- "philadelphia inquirer." de "the president's national security adviser did not rule out adding more u.s. forces in afghanistan to help turn around a war that he said yesterday was now -- was not now in crisis. james jones said the united states would know by the end of next year whether the revamped war plan obama announced in march was taking hold, with new benchmarks that reflected a redrawn strategy. the outline is expected next month." on the weekend talk shows, jones did little to dispel the rolling expectation that obama soon will be asked to supplement the 21,000 additional troops already approved for afghanistan this year." we will speak more in the program with congressman sherman about afghanistan. your chance to weigh in his right now. jeff, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i believe that the obama administration is doing the right job by making the focus of afghanistan -- i want a president who believe we never should have been in iraq in the first place and that the real proble

in the "philadelphia inquirer" they talk about some of the protests and messages that have gone on atse of and around the country. they write about one event featuring kathleen sebelius and arlen specter. host: carrying on on the front page of "wall street journal" as congress goes on break, lobbying heats up. public meetings nationwide this month labor unions and others in the debate are lobbying heavily. if you want to call in, republicans, 202-737-0001. democrats, 202-737-0002. independents, 202-628-0205 let us take our first phone call from charleston, west virginia. caller: this is roger johnson from charleston. i am wondering why do we -- why we do not hear president obama talk about tort reform as a serious consideration for reining in health-care costs. that is probably one third of the excessive costs. do you have any comment on that? host: that has been an issue and i know several republican senators have brought it up. next phone call from pine hurst, north carolina. caller: i just want to know about the health care situation. i am a republican but i do not understand what

host: on the front page of the "philadelphia inquirer," the cervical cancer vaccine is facing new questions. some are questioning whether this can cut the toll of cancer. federal researchers analyzed 12,424 voluntary reports of post-vaccination adverse effects ranging from headaches to death. they conclude only two complaints, fainting and blood clots, are more common than expected. you can read more about this test in the report and "ama." back to the phones now from ohio. caller: good morning. i just have three comments i would like to make. maybe there are questions. on the aarp, with all these people casting their memberships because of the health care association with obama, it was a year ago with the bush should ministration when i found out that they were supporting moveon.org. i told them they never sent me an e-mail again. i did not want them to do with anything that donated to that organization, so this is not the first time. the other point was governor, lane -- governor connors was in the process of investigating the acorn, and all of the sudden he decided that it was not necess

another article this morning from the philadelphia -- "philadelphia inquirer." de "the president's national security adviser did not rule out adding more u.s. forces in afghanistan to help turn around a war that he said yesterday was now -- was not now in crisis. james jones said the united states would know by the end of next year whether the revamped war plan obama announced in march was taking hold, with new benchmarks that reflected a redrawn strategy. the outline is expected next month." on the weekend talk shows, jones did little to dispel the rolling expectation that obama soon will be asked to supplement the 21,000 additional troops already approved for afghanistan this year." we will speak more in the program with congressman sherman about afghanistan. your chance to weigh in his right now. jeff, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i believe that the obama administration is doing the right job by making the focus of afghanistan -- i want a president who believe we never should have been in iraq in the first place and that the real proble

we're looking at "the philadelphia inquirer." if the government insurance could be dropped in favor of a co-op model. competition is still key. here is "the wall street journal." the white house opens door to compromise on the government role in health-care overhaul. go ahead, please. caller: we already have public health care. it is called welfare. you have 350 million people that have insurance. you have 50 million people that do not have insurance. why don't we get rid of the insurance companies, which everybody likes and give it free to the 50 million wetbacks and people who just do not want it. host: a new plan floated for health care. if we look at "the chicago tribune," obama backs of the public option. cooperatives are one alternative for insurance plan. the loss angeles times, the white house backs off of public health option. obama and other officials said that it is not essential. you can see a picture of the obamas at the grand canyon. the family went to the grand canyon. some of the family also what whitewater raftin

host: on the front page of the philadelphia inquirer, a story about cervical vaccines and whether gardasil can really cut kantor's -- cancers toll. you can read more about this test and the report in the journal of the ama. back to the phones. cambridge, ohio. bill on the line for republicans. caller: i have three comments i want to make. on the aarp, with all of these people canceling their memberships because of their association with president obama, it was probably one year ago with the bush administration when i found out they were supporting moveon.org. i told them never to send me anything again. i did not want to be involved with anyone who donated to that type of organization. also, senator conners was in the process of investigating acorn. why isn't the media looking into this? one last question -- what is the working families association? to me it sounds like the people's party. host: in the "harford current" -- back to the phones. stanford, north carolina. danny? let's move on to clearwater, florida. go ahead. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i could not avoid, in re

host: a story by the associated press this morning that you can find on the philadelphia inquirer of looks at strategy in afghanistan. it talks about a forthcoming report on afghanistan. they write that the biggest change urged in the report is a cultural shift, with changes in how they live and where they fight. the latest draft of the assessment also double in the numbers to roughly four and did thousand senior defense officials in washington. several officials spoke on anonymity, because the report was not made official. one thing it says is to use intelligence less to hunt and more to understand the structure, getting more troops more active in fighting corruption. forces will have to take care of their dealings, and powering corrupt officials. caller: the other day, you had roy blunt on, and i was wondering, have you ever watched cnbc? host: occasionally. caller: when they have analysts on to talk about stocks and markets, they will show potential conflicts of interests, whether he owns the stock or not. when you have representatives on that have many members of their family tha

in an e-mail to the "philadelphia inquirer" vick didn't violate probation.e's not fully reinstated by the nfl. these circumstance, not a good idea for him to be out drinking. if he indeed was. behave like a monk until everything is over. >>> and five years in prison for violating probation. the "st. louis post dispatch" says that woman, crystal taylor, admit shed failed to check in with her probation officer. arrested twice in texas. she says that she planned to marry dirk and is seeking custody of their unborn child. >>> last week fans in wisconsin showing displeasure. we'll never forget you brent, t-shirts over brett favre leaving to play for their biggest rival, the minnesota vikings, and benedict brent t-shirts can be sold. a typo. they know how to spell. >> that is so funny. i love it. >>> all right. you may have a lot of things on your to-do list but you may not be getting as much stuff done as you think. a multitasker. new scams out there and it could take all of your money. >>> some grim perspectives about the swine flu. president obama was told more

suzy, the lead story in the philadelphia inquirer this morning says obama is saying the media is overplaying protests, "tv loves a ruckus." he said it is polite to have questions. your thoughts. guest: absolutely. i was a journalist for 20 years. i will tell you this, reporters are lazy. they're really lazy. i don't think most people understand that there is nowhere near as much fact-checking going on as you think there is. people think what they saw on tv is true. all the time on stories. you need to fix it. they would get mad at me. i'm sure a lot of those people worked their way up through the ranks and maybe they even work at cnn. the thing is, also with the 24-hour news channels, what happens is when they have a mistake in the story, once the mistake is there, they rarely go back and fix it. they have to fill up a big news hole on a 24-hour channel. they keep repeating the same erroneous story with the error in it over and over. i have seen this so many times i can't even count. fox news, one of their favorite tricks is whenever a republican congressperson is caught some a scandal -- an

. >> host: in this morning's "philadelphia inquirer." now to our line for democrats. >> caller: yes, i'd like to say that it'd be nice to have a bipartisan bill between the democrats and republicans. but the republican line stated -- republicans keep saying they won't vote for it. if that will happen, democrats need to do this themselves. that's why they were elected. >> host: how important to you that the bill be bipartisan? >> caller: it's -- i'd like it to be that way both sides take responsibility for the passage of the bill. and they are saying they had a part in taking part in it. that would be fair to all. because we didn't have that option the last eight years. but i would like it to be -- it needs to be done for the country. and these people who are saying that socialized medicine are not -- they wouldn't go through medicare, and that's socialized medicine. there's people out there that are hurting that are working hard too. i just believe it would be the right thing to do with the country? >> host: do you think the bipartisan b

host: two different front pages -- "the philadelphia inquirer" talk about health plan backers filling the need -- senate candidates joe sestak, who would very much like to have arlen specter's job in the state. "the baltimore sun" as a store, "two dialects, one thorny idea. most say that the bill would hurt care unburden the nation." -- and bird in the nation. -- burden the nation at." let's hear from rich in south bend, indiana. caller: these protesters have not changed my mind. the system is broken. our entire health care payments is based on a prior -- prayer that every employer in the country will offer employees the health care and pick up 80% of the bill. the very second one employer says i am not point to do it -- i am not going to do it, the system breaks down. we have 50 million americans without health insurance, and it is costing us money. a person that does not have insurance does not have money to see a doctor, is in the emergency room, getting routine stuff done -- a broken arm, and your infection -- and suddenly there is a $1,500 bill. what happens? the hospital is not