Really excited to dive into is how journalism is dealing with this issue, how journalists are trying to cover a story that is unprecedented. Here is how the conversation will go. The first half of the conversation, our guest and i will just have a conversation between the two of us. Halfway through we will start taking your questions. For those of you who are members of the georgetown community, you will see a q and a button. Halfway through we will start taking them. We will let you know when your question has been collected and bring you onto the screen to ask your questions. Ake sure you are tv ready. You can ask chris your question directly. Tell us whether you are a student, staff or faculty and they sure to keep an eye on the chat at the bottom. That is where we will let you now. For those of you that know me, you know my side gig is as a fox ews contributor. I have known chris for a few years now and am a summit semi regular guest on his program. It is intimidating preparing to be interviewed by one of the best interviewers in the business. It is more intimidating to interview one of the best interviewers in the usiness. So chris, tried to go easy on me but thank you for joining me for this conversation. Chris i am delighted to be here. I hope i am tv ready myself. O you look great. Chris thank you. And you are a regular panelist on Fox News Sunday. You are a panelist this sunday. How you are treated on sunday is directly related to how i am treated tonight. But go ahead. Mo i was hoping you would not notice until after this. Hris i noticed. Mo of course you did. The institute, we believe very, very strongly that journalism is one of the most important forms of public ervice in our society. I think this Current Crisis we are going through is the perfect evidence of that where so many people are touched and impacted. Everybody is impacted and they are trying to get information and they are turning to you or your colleagues to figure out what is happening. You have been in the business a long time and covered it all. Politics, president ial debates and international conflicts. Have you ever covered anything like this . Chris no, and i dont know anybody unless you are around in 1917 has lived through this. Most of us were lucky we did not live through world war ii. When i look at seminal events of my life, the most frightening was 9 11 and the sense at that time things were out of control. And we didnt know. And obviously, there was the first day, 3000 americans killed. There were the anthrax envelopes and concern about whether there would be more hijackings, chemical or biological weapons used against us. Because of a lot of good work by people in government, there were not more terror attacks. Or certainly nothing on that scale. We have never had a pandemic like this that hit the United States so directly. There have been other pandemics that hit other parts of the world. Forget about being a reporter or in Public Policy. I have never lived through anything like this. I have a second home in annapolis. Hat is where we are now. We havent left the property except to drive in a car but not get out for a month. My wifes birthday took place during this period. We did a zoom call with our family. We had easter. How many times do you have to wash your hands walking down this country road we live, to have a mask ready. We get some person that works for us my wife and i are sitting and diseffecting disinfecting no. Ive never lived through anything like this ittleknown had to report. Mo it seems to me one of the challenges of trying to cover a story like this is how little we know about what we dont know even. And it is not just the public and it is not just you as a journalist but even the experts you would normally go to our trying to figure it out in real time as we go. At the 3000 foot level, how do you cover Something Like that where nobody, the number of answers that we wanted versus the number of answers that are available, how do you try to cover that . Chris you have to rely on people that know as much as they can know. I agree with you on a lot of students will not remember this, but after 9 11, Donald Rumsfeld was the secretary of defense and used to about known knowns and nown unknowns. There is a lot we know we dont know. You want to go to experts. We have been trying as often as we could to get anthony fauci, the head of an Infectious Disease i was reporting on him when he was involved in the aids epidemic of the 1980s. E convinced Ronald Reagan at the time to come out and talk about aids as an epidemic and not something affecting a small community. He has been a real resource. Another person i was very impressed never met or talked to him, but i was impressed by his coverage was tom i think. Sby, his coverage was tom hegels be, the center for Health Security at johns hopkins. They have a lot of data and he has been one of the leading voices. In terms of what we know and dont know, you know it is very helpful. It is interesting how the story has evolved as a reporter. In the beginning i have no atience first been or any patience for spin. Hat are the facts . Was interested as possible in trying to get things from dr. Fauci or dr. Ingles be. We did a big interview on the first weeks with bill gates who is not a doctor but has been involved in Public Health for 20 years and devoted billions of dollars to Public Health and has made himself into an expert. We did an interview the first week, the 29th. That was very useful. I thought he was excellent in providing information. Interestingly enough, i think the story and frankly to my dismay has become more political as time has gone on. You would agree. It has become kind of tribal. You see people saying no. We have got to stay sheltered. It is too soon. You see protests saying we have got to open up. We saw thousands on the steps of the state capital in harrisburg, pennsylvania yesterday. A lot of that is trapped with political divisions. Liberal, big city, close together people taking one point of view on this and more conservative, people in less Populated Areas taking a ifferent view. Unfortunately but as a reporter you cover the story that is there, not the one you would like to be there. With the protest i thought we had the switch to cover more of that because it has become a bigger part of the story. We had mike pence and nancy elosi on the show. Listening to the two of them it was like they were describing two different worlds in terms of he threat for the virus, preparedness of the federal and state governments in handling it. It has become part of the story now. I want to come back to reality and facts of where we are on the famous curve. The way people are responding to it is part of the story. O it is interesting because there is so many dimensions. There is Public Health, there is the human dimension, the stuff happening in the hospitals and then the response, local and federal. It seems the attention right now is going into the last part on what is the governmental response that i think a lot of reporters are trying to make sure we dont lose sight of the human element. It is getting all consumed by the story over the federal response and increasing Politics Around it. Chris i agree with everything you said. There is one other aspect which is a really important part and that is the economic. When you get 22 million americans filing for Unemployment Benefits in a single month, when you see we will have a doubledigit Unemployment Rate for march and april. For the Second Quarter april through june we could have a gdp contraction. Usually it goes up 1 . Or 2 or 3 . They could go down 25 . That is an important part of the story because frankly, and this gets into the political question, it becomes a class question. I can sit here and pontificate in my shelter in place country home in annapolis where i broadcast. Here i am on the zoom in on my show i am doing it for a from a virtual studio but a lot of people you cant do either cant, have to go out into the real world and take the subway or have lost their jobs. On one hand Public Health is important. Obviously it is the most important because if we dont get that right, we will never get the economy right, but i dont dismiss any stretch of the administration the administration there are a lot of people if this goes on too long they will lose businesses and her livelihood and month and not be able to pay for their apartment. That is a huge part of the story. Mo we try to balance all of these differing elements because there is a tension between the economic part and the Public Health part of the story. That tension is driving the political story and Public Policy part of the story. Seems to me too often, in some parts of cable news ecosystems, that is being presented as a tension. How do you asked journalists try to provide the whole story in a way that connects them . Chris you cant provide the whole story. I do a lot on commentary on the network. I do one hour and a week. The story does evolve over ime. Sometimes, different weeks, you know, it was mentioned i have been doing this half a century. 51 years starting in the i have. Summer. You have an innate sense. Of the what the story is. In the first early weeks it was all Public Health. That was the only thing thatas time went on i thought the mattered. Economic side became more important. S she sthelt and the complete shutdown of the economy deepened and broadened, you can feel it in your bones that is the story. This past week i thought it became more political and we have led with the protests. It is not like that is good or bad or responsible or irresponsible, it is. You have to have an innate sense of what i think the story is and what is the most important thing to be talking about. And, you know, that doesnt always mean its the most important thing in the whole story. I think clearly, Public Health remains that. But as time goes on, there is only so much you can say about where we are in the curve or where we are the testing and there are other parts of the stories that come to the fore. So, you know, its kind of a rolling thing. You dont have to cover all of the story in each hour. You hope that over the course of weeks, youre covering various shades of the story. Mo i want to take a step back from a particular story and talk a little bit more about and then ill bring it back but talk a little bit more about covering Politics Today and covering this administration. Ive heard you speak a couple of times now, most recently back in december the farewell to the museum here in washington. Talking about journalism today in this day and age, and you make two points. Im going to separate each one out and id like for you to respond to them both. The first, you said President Trump is engaged in the most direct sustained assaulten the free press in our history. And i think his purpose is clear. A Concerted Campaign to raise doubts over whether we can be trusted when we report critically about his administration. We have seen even before President Trump that trump in the media has been a rodent. That seems to be dangerous particularly a moment like this. Do you think his continued attacks on your profession makes it harder when the information youre giving people can legitimately mean life or death or prosperity or not . Chris well, i suppose, you increases and st mistrustin creases, it doesnt make your job harder to do. It makes it harder for you to break through to some people. Incidentally, i hate it when im quoted to myself. But its true. Its like the closing of the museum and i said that and i stand by it. I think the president is engaged in the most direct result on our free press on our history, i got some emails back from some people that said wait a minute. What about john adames and the sedition act and i said ok. I wasnt around for that. I wasnt there. I stand corrected about john adams. But, you know, i guess i was really talking about in my lifetime, which is considerable, and i do think so. And i think as i suggested that its somewhat cynical because i think the president feels if i can discredit the press, then i can discredit them with my supporters, then when they criticize me or when they report critically or negatively about things i did, then it loses some of its credibility with those supporters and perhaps with some other people. So i think its a calculated effort on his part. The fat that he tweets he made the last two sundays hasnt gone unnoticeded and i said this he can tell that they were reaching out and the third or fourth time he does it, it loses its sting and this is about the third or fourth time hes attacked me and i was thinking what was he attacking the more . A week ago sunday, he was attacking me that the because the New York Times have done a very thorough and interesting piece about all the information that the president got much earlier than he had indicated that he was getting intelligence from the Intelligence Community in january and information from a number of Public Health people in late january, early february and this had gone unheard or unnoticed, it had gone unacted on and it wasnt until mid march that he declared the emergency. Well, i was asking some people about it and apparently the fact that i even asked about it was offensive. And then this last week, it was en more clear because he attacked nancy pelosi and then he said that i and fox were on the wrong path. And i thought so what hes basically saying is the fact that i had a voice at the opposition on the show, our first guest was the Vice President. Our second guest was nancy pelosi, and the very fact that i was talking to a critic was a istake, and then he says yeah, you have to say. Mo the very next paragraph, you say even if trump is trying to undermine the press for his own calculated reasons when he talks about bias in the media, on fairness, i think he has a point. Talk about that a little bit. Chris yeah. I think that the president s aggressive attack on the press first of all, i think in a lot of the media, that there is a liberal slant. So when the president talks about a liberal slant, i think that hes right. I think in a lot of fox news, there is i dont think in the news side, but a lot of fox opinion has a conservative slant. And so i think to some degree, you know, its like, you know, as i think ive said even hype karon yaks even get sick. Hype con tracks even get sick. It is a somewhat slanted press but the more important point i was making was that i thought that some in the media had used the president s attack as an excuse to attack back to really down some of the levels of objectivity to become adversaries for the president. There are a lot of things does that the president does in the white house briefings that im not particularly comfortable with that he does but theres a lot of arguing with the president. Not asking questions but arguing with the president in these briefings and of course now you get to see how the sausage is made because these briefings are on live for long potts. Where i really think periods of time where i really think sometimes it isnt reporting or testing which is something i try to do as a reporter, i think its advocacy or arguing, i sometimes think the fact goes over the line. Let me make one more point if i can. I think its a mistake because to the degree that were seeing as players on the field, i think we undercut our own credibility of people watch us doing our job and they dont think i mean, im a tough interviewer and i like to think if you watch my interview with pence on sunday and with pelosi, i was tough on both of them but some reporters think im so bent on beating the president on winning the argument that i think they undercut their own credibility and to the degree that they end up playing his game either combatant or theyre a combatant. Theyre undercutting their own credibility. Mo in the hard lain feed though, again, using this Current Crisis as an example, the information thats coming from the podium is not right or questionable or different than it was the day before or even moments before it sometimes, here is that line for a good girl journalist to push back and get the facts versus falling into more advocacy . Chris well, you know, its a good question and i dont know if i can give you a precise answer. I certainly dont have any problem with people factchecking. If the president says we got enough test for everybody and you want to come back and say well, you know, Governor Cuomo says they dont have the tests or in a variety of places, people have gone for weeks without having tests. I dont have any problem with that at all. You know, there was a famous obscenity case, i think it was in the 1960s and Justice Potter stewart of the Supreme Court said i cant define obscenity but i know it when i see it. And thats how i feel. Im not sure if i can say its precisely this line. Theres a difference between challenging and arguing. Theres a difference between an adversary in the sense of being an adversary establishment. The press is an adversary of the establishment and being an advocate. I dont think i can define it but i know it when i see it and i think a lot of people do too. Mo were going to move to student questions in a few moments. So i just encourage those students who are watching again, to look at the bottom of your screen and click on the q a button to start submitting your questions if you havent design so already. Chris, there are two interesting polls that came out today, that showed that peoples attitudes towards various elements of the coronavirus story are informed in large part by where they get their news. And that goes from everything from the federal response to how fast we should reopen the economy to, you know, even how serious the problem even is. And its interesting that you have them in different parts of the spectrum and viewers who get their news from the three broadcast networks somewhere in between and im curious your thoughts on that dynamic and why that may be and have the lines between news and opinions just become too blurry . Chris you know, ive had time to do a lot of things i wouldnt normally do during this months lockdown and one of them is ive read a lot of books and in fact, ive run out of books. My wife, lorraine, is getting them from amazon. But one book that i have that i brought out is the book called why were polarized by ezra klein . And he has a very interesting thesis and he basically says it isnt republican or democrat. It isnt fox news or msnbc. It isnt liberal or conservative. Isnt urban coasts versus rural midland. Its all of those, that there is basically that we have broken down into tribes and that our view of our politics, our view of our media, our view of entertainment, our view of our beliefs, religion or nonreligious beliefs, its all tied its all part of this tribal identity and it all becomes a selfreinforcing mechanism, phenomenon. And so, you know, you believe a certain thing, you live in a certain place. You have certain views about church or religion or faith or social issues. You watch a certain news read or watch certain news sources that reinforces those beliefs and its no surprise that people in the different tribes see things differently. And, you know, as exactly as i say, it is not a surprise. I think its disheartening. You know, Daniel Patrick moynahan, the great social scientist and the u. S. Senator from new york used to say everybodys entitled their own opinion but theyre not entitled their own facts. And i think increasingly in this country, its been going on for a while. Thats been the start of the covid19, people have their own set of facts. And it even comes with a virus. And so some people think its a huge threat and were way too and o reopen the country there are some people who believe the threats been overblown and the models were talking about two Million People and now its 60,000 and, you know, its been too much about too little. And i dont want to listen to a reporter. I want to listen to a reporter because they know. Mo its interesting some of these buy cease and tribes, they dont break down. Theres, for example, a huge bias, i think, in the press coverage i mean, let me refrain that rephrase that. Theres a lot of coverage about whats happening in the big decide a lot less of happening in other parts of the country. Now, you can argue that makes sense because the cities are the biggest hot spots right now. And coverage tends to focus on the coastal cities more than it does on some of the other heartland cities and i would think that would impact how people outside of the coastal cities view things. I also think its interesting story collection has something to do with it. Some news outlets are focusing on a lot of the protests that are happening and those are newsworthy compared to the percentage of the country that actually support whats happening in those protests, sometimes i think it gives off a little bit of a huge sense of sexude sense of where the country really is. Chris i agree with that. First of i think that all, the news operations are in the big cities. Where most of the News Coverage we see is coming out of new york. Its coming out in los angeles. Thats where people are and among other things, i know here at fox, weve got real restrictions on being able to travel. And we cover the cities where we already have people, yes. Can we go out to places that, for instance, out to south dakota where that farms, meat plant is . I think its hard for us and a lot of the other News Organizations to get there. So you end up taking feeds of things. So youre not naturally if there and youre not covering it in doubt but all of this as i say tends to create two different realities. But it is reality. Mo you got your start in local journalism. And so much of whats happening, is happen on the ground in these local communities. But this is an industry that was struggling even before coronavirus. And its now being even further decimated. News rooms across the country, local news rooms being slashed in dramatic fashion. These local reporters are the ones that are giving people thats relevant to their daytoday lives. How do we fix that problem . How big of a problem is isnt it chris its a huge problem. It was a big problem before we have the covidvirus here in maryland, capital gazette. They suffered a terrible attack when a gunman came in and killed five people. There were questions whether it could stay in business. Not because of safety, but because of the finances and its true increasingly around the country. And, you know, long before the virus, this was a problem because, you know, one thing i think you and i would completely agree on, better stuff doesnt happen when people dont know about it. I guess it was either frankfurt or brandeis, im going to i think it was brandeis that sunshine is the great ineffect to the degree that we have seffect that we have less how theyre spending their money hat affect us. Im interested in whats happening in new york and im interested in whats happening in smithville but i really understood what is happening in indianapolis. It just came out that the Maryland Department of Public Health with how many cases and deaths there were in each zip code in maryland. And you can be sure, my wife and i went on google and, you know, typed in our zip code to see how many cases there were here. And, you know, i dont have to tell you it was tip oneill who said all politics is local. Im not sure all politics is local but certainly, the politics that feats you most is local. Mo were going to go to student questions now which i guarantee will be far better than any of mine. And our first question will come from paulina. Tell us who you are, school, year, what youre studying and where youre zooming in from. Caller hello. Thank you for having me on. I am paulina and im a junior in the schools foreign service. Im zooming in from sparta, new jersey, and im also a reporter at the federalist. Question involves were getting a lot of facts and experts and politicians even have been completely contradictory saying regularly. How can responsible reporters report on facts . How can they know who to trust and how can they avoid embarrassing themselves later . Chris well, its a good question, marina. In the paulina. In the end, youre only as good as your sources. I dont think you can get in trouble if youre quoting a person. I dont feel like my correct is on the line if i quote a president or pelosi or mike pence or whatever. Theyre saying what theyre saying. In terms of facts, you know, i dont think anybody thinks or expects that im a Public Health expert and i know how the curve is going to go. So, you know, i think you have to source it. You have to hopefully, you have good sources and reliableable source but to some degree as we discussed mo and i at the very beginning of this, so much information has changed and so much of this is unknown to begin ith. Look at the most expert people. You have the think tank at the university of washington. I think its imhe and their initial model was two million to one million meme who were killed if Nothing Happened and then it went down to 100,000 to 8,000 and now its 60,000. Nobody knows. And in the end, the key is you got to quote them and say this is what first of all, you want to quote responsible organizations, not irresponsible organizations. But in the end, even the most responsible ones can get something wrong and as long as youre quoting them and doing your honest best not to go with something that, you know, feeds your narrative but what you think is good, solid information that you have reason to trust, i think youre ok. Mo all right. Caller thank you. Mo our next question comes from jason. Caller hi, chris. How are you doing today . Chris good. Caller so especially right now, people desperately looking for trusted source of information, but even prior to the covid outbreak, according to a 2018 i. C. Poll and the dwed trust barometer, the news rank extremely low in the opinion for the cent. So what do you think as an industry, journalist and News Organization should be doing to earn back americas trust and can they even do so . Chris well, one of the things that they can do and its a good question. One of the things that i think they can do is not get into the fight. Ot become advocates. And to the degree possible, try to be objective and try to be even ahead. Hits nny, this is all like precovid and post covid. A lot of people would come up to me and compliment me and say how fair i was and on the one hand, i like to be complimented on the next person but i find it really depressing zphem reason i did was because when i started in the News Business back in 1969 as a reporter at the boston obe, fairness, accuracy was the bear minimum requirement. You werent fair or accurate, you got fired. You were praised for your reporting or your writing or on tv for your broadcasting you werent praised for fairness. That was like it went with the territory. And the fact today that people can stand out and i get praised for being fair to me is a real sad comment tir. Commentary. Part of it is msnbc is part of it, fox is a part of it. The broadcast networks are a part of it. The New York Times is part of it is that people perceive that they have an angle, that they have a partisan position. And to the degree that it happens, then they get caught up in this whole tribal identity that i was talking about. So if youre new york urban liberal, well, you like the New York Times. And if youre a Country Club Republican upper middle class person, maybe you like the wall street journal and on and on with the broadcast networks and the cable networks. And, you know, i like to think that people can distinguish between the opinion at fox and the news side of fox. And, you know, i could describe it to you but im sure there are a lot of folks out there who cant define it. Ive said the same thing about msnbc and cnn and a lot of newspapers as well. T i do think that not theres an opinion in newspapers. Theres an oped page theres an editorial page. Theres an opinion in magazines. Theres an opinion on television. I dont say that theyre bad things but i do think that that probably has hurt the credibility of organizations. Because lets say youre a conservative and you think that msnbc is liberal. Well then you dont think msnbc is credible. So the degree that people think News Organizations of a stake have a stake in the game, i think it hurts their general level of credibility, at least with some of the population. Mo thanks, jason. Its interesting, chris, its not uncommon chat after i appear on your show or on any of the news shows at fox natalie get angry tweets from people who say i cant believe fox has you on as a democrat. Why dont you go to msnbc or cnn where you belong . And i get that. And i always find that where you belong to be really interesting. Theyre looking for a particular perspective, i think. If they hear a different perspective, it offends them in some ways. Mo i do get hate tweets from Rosie Odonnell. From Rosie Odonnell who suggested i should get off fox if i cared about such and such issue. So yeah, i do that do get that from former colleagues. He has probably gotten a few more than i have. But when i was at the dnc, i had my entire tenure without ever engaging. I thought it was important to have a different perspective on their. As falling into the trap. Stephanie . Tell us who you are going your graduation year, and your major. Caller thanks for having me. I am stephanie zooming in from toronto. I am a graduate student in the masters of Indigenous Studies Program and graduating in december you can keep your answer brief, but you mentioned declines and polarization due to the fact that we have a desire to see self reinforcing media. Do you think the media is partially to blame for this . In general, there is generally more information being put out there. Chris i actually hold you, not you, stephanie, but you, the news consumer responsible. When people ask me how to sort through the world we live in now. I say watch or listen or ead. Every day, makes some new source that you disagree with. If you like fox news, read the ew york times. If you like msnbc, read the editorial page of the wall treet journal. I think one of the worst things that people do is they just read what reinforces what they ctually believe. Go challenge yourself. I also watch one of the evening broadcast Networks Every night i read the editorial page of the wall street journal and the New York Times. T is like triangulation. If you see one side and the other, you may not agree with the other side but at least you are aware of it, really open eyed and open minded about it. You are able to learn something and challenge your reconceptions. Mo all right. , stephanie, thanks for the question. John, tell us who you are and where you are calling from. Caller hi. Great to be here. My name is john and im calling in from long island, ew york. Would you believe the trump administration, including officials and the president imself, do you believe it is effectively and accurately communicating with the public concerning its response concerning covid19 . Chris no. I dont think they are opening line openly lying come but they are trying to tell a story of how well they are doing. Theres some areas in which they are doing well and areas in which theyve started way too lowly. Having said that, you might want to say this white house was worse than others, but white houses and press secretaries work to sell them, and particularly one that is sixmonth away from a reelection campaign. They are going to put the best face on what theyve done and minimize the mistakes they have made. I think there is certain information. When i am watching those briefings, i really Pay Attention to when a nonpolitical opinion,. When dr. Birx comes on or tony faucher. They are absolutely giving it to you straight. Some of the more political people, including the president , are pushing a line. Some of it is true. The president has been criticized fairly for not responding quickly enough in february and march to the situation as it increased, and whenever he is challenged on that, he immediately goes back to the travel ban with china. That was a smart thing to do and t wasnt universally received. But it doesnt excuse or deal with what he failed to do in february and march so you need to understand when youre watching a briefing, its people who work for that president , not necessarily the Public Health people, but certainly others. And i want to emphasize that has been done with president s and press secretaries in time mmemorial. Mo thanks, john. Next we got ben. Ben, where are you calling from . Caller im calling from alexandria virginia. I am a student graduating in 2021. We spoke how you make sure that the experts are being truthful hemselves . Everyone seems to have political motivations. How do you keep them honest as well . Chris well, i dont. I disagree, ben, that everyone has political motivations aired there are certainly some and there have been legitimate uestions raised. In fairness, i have learned a lot. One thing about my job is there is forced education. Preparing for a show is you have to get yourself up to speed. I have learned a lot more about the who. You know its an arm of the United Nations and the United Nations are obviously going to be somewhat slow with member countries. One argument is not just the defense. Hey have not provided enough information about the threat of the coronavirus china. It may have been unrealistic to xpect them to really lay the wood on the member countries, particularly because of sure there was some thought to what it would be if we really alienated them. But having said that, i do think there are people who, over time, you come to think that they dont have a political ax to grind. It wasnt that he was being negative or positive with the administration. He was just being straight. He was interviewing them a few times now and had read for weeks hat he was saying. I just dont see any political bent their. It was just people who were either part of the administration or being enlisted to support the administration. Not that i discredit them but i factor that in to how i assess what they have to say. But there were enough honest, independent sources. They arent always were right but i dont think they have a partisan ax to grind. Mo ok. Im having some technical problems. Can you hear me . I cant hear you, but you can hear me. While i deal with that we are going to call caitlin. Chris i can hear you. So, dont say anything. [laughter] go ahead, caitlin. Caller my name is caitlin chen. I am a graduate student from arlington virginia. I wondered if local news outlets are struggling financially. I was just wondering what are things that we or the government can do to support and will the money be enough . Chris well, were sort of nervous about government and News Organizations. You want them to be independent and you dont want them to be beholden. The idea that the local government is going to bailout the local newspaper, that comes with strings attached. In the end, the market speaks. The free market speaks, and hether it is newspapers or local television stations or Internet Sources is because they have to find a Business Model that supports the. One thing im impressed with and have come to rely on, i was not a big fan of reading the news online because i loved to open my front door in the morning. I liked to open the front door and get a newspaper and put it at the Kitchen Table and read it. Now, i dont want to because im worried i will have to disinfect it, so i have been doing a lot of reading online. I hated doing it. If you get something free your whole life, you dont like paying for it. I am now paying for newspapers online. T works great. I love it. Everybodys probably saying wow this old guy doesnt realize the internet is going to catch on, the point is that the New York Times or Washington Post or wall street journal found a model that worked. In the end, im not really comfortable with government bailouts or handouts with News Organizations. I think they have to find a model that works to allow them to stay in business. If they dont, somebody else will find one that does. Mo thanks. Caitlin. Chris, i saw you wagging your finger at me but i couldnt hear what you were saying. But that is good. Lets go to tyler for the next question. Caller hey there. Im a graduate student at the school of foreign service. Like you, i like to receive a physical copy of the newspaper in the morning. But where do you get your news from . What are your preferred sources . And how do you comb through them to understand that they are valid or worth reading stories with putting away in your mind . How do you suggest we do the ame . Chris well, and again, part of this probably has an age bias, but i like News Organizations and do not have an editorial process. You dont really know what they are backing. There are some that you do and some that you dont aired you wonder if the person reporting had to submit it or fact check. Is there a Business Model that depends on accuracy . I looked at a number of new ources that some could say are established. I particularly likes the editorial page and oped page in the wall street journal as i think they have really interesting arguments. They are making a case in they tell me things i dont know that find very valuable. They have a weekly talk show they cover it in greater depth than anything else there are various blogs and think tanks that put things out. But one thing i try to do is hallenge myself. If i read something that has a liberal slant or comes from an organization with a liberal slant, i always want to check out the other side of it. I am always looking for pushback. I know that he is going to make the case that how good the Administration Response on testing is, i have a great researcher. I will say to her, give me the pushback give me the counterargument not to say its right or the other one is wrong, give me alternatives so that i can test that and form a and let me tell you, when im talking to nancy pelosi i do the same thing. So im always looking for both sides. Chris, we are coming up on the end of our time. I want to close with one last question. You are a student of history. You look at how different president s make decisions. You have just written a book about president ial decisionmaking in an equally tumultuous american history. Tell us some of the parallels you see between that and now. Its funny you should mention it. Its called countdown 1945. I have to look up what the subtitle is. It will be out on june 9 so you could go wherever to free order. This story briefly is about the days between when harry truman becomes president and Delano Roosevelt has died. Its not just about truman, its about truman and the decisionmaking he is going through. The scientists at los alamos, the flight crew is getting competitive people jockeying for the final fight. A 10yearold girl who is on the ground in hiroshima. Is 86 still alive, she years old. I got to interview her. It is about all of the different aspects of the story. But one of the things that impressed me was Harry Trumans decision. It had been kind of a backbench to senator for 10 years. He was not expected to be on the ticket. The reason he was picked in 1944 was literally the Democratic Party said, who is out there who would hurt the ticket least . Not help, but hurt us the least and they figured this kind of nonentity harry truman. So he becomes Vice President in january and he had spoken to truman privately. He had been in some cabinet meetings. Tohad spoken privately roosevelt twice in the months he had been Vice President. In other words, he was basically unprepared to be president. And when he was president , a guy said he needed to talk to him privately he takes him in and says there is a program you know nothing about and which we have developed the most fearsome, terrifying weapon of all time. That was the first time harry truman had ever heard of the manhattan project. Between then and august 6, he had to find out what it was all about. The weapon had never been tested. He has to make sure it works. He went to Winston Churchill and his allies that were about to fight the war in japan. The thing that impressed me so much was the lengths he went to. He had repeated meetings about how the bomb worked, if it made more sense, the moral implications, the political and environmental implications and longterm implications. Anybody who reads this book, i think you are going to be so impressed by just the decisionmaking process. You would hope that every president , i dont think every president goes to this process. But you read this and think, maybe i agreed with what he did, maybe i dont, but i think he absolutely exhausted every possible argument before he made his decision. I want to finish by telling a story here i am. One of the things you have to do is writing the book is only part of it. I am now in the process of reading the audiobook and i have to say i think its one of the most torturous things ive ever had to do. If youve ever had to read 300 pages out loud, im reading about 50 pages today and that takes about four hours. Its hard. Im not a first responder, i understand my place in the world, but tomorrow, i will be spending four or five hours reading another 5060 pages of this wonderfully written, great book. Next time youve got an audiobook, think of the poor guy who sits there for five days reading. It is work. Ive spent every night reading a different chapter of harry potter to my children. I think you might actually have it a little easier. Chris wallace when we talk about , journalism as a form of public service, you are who i think of. Thank you so much for what you do to keep us all informed, and thank you for your time tonight. Go easy on me the sunday. Youve passed. And i want to thank everybody for watching and listening. Anything we can do to Bring Community in these times are we are also isolated, i am all for. Thank you for doing this. And watch Fox News Sunday this week. Love it. And from all of you in the audience who have tuned in, thank you for spending some of your time with us this evening. Keep following to find out about the remainder of our virtual events. Tomorrow night is part two of our chat. We have got tom perez live, Ronna Mcdaniel tomorrow night and next tuesday, a conversation on American Leadership senator mitt romney. Thank you all again and stay tuned for more. Cspan has round the crock clock coverage to the coronavirus response. Briefings, house updates from governors and state officials, track the spread through the u. S. And the world with interactive maps. Washington journal live every day with policy issues that affect you. Monday morning, discussion of the pandemic on health policy. Come up the communicators, the cofounder of netflix. He shares his experiences starting online streaming service. 1998, it didnt take long when we got that first day in. We cheered and began opening champagne. Three minutes later, three more orders. Then we got two more orders. We crashed all of our servers. The government marilyn spoke the his politico about process of reopening after a decrease in positive cases. Lets get started. Thank you for joining us. Beot of our viewers will interested in the substance. Could you give us an overall view of the landscape as you see it in your state right now . Governor hogan thank you for inviting me to join you for these important discussions. We are in the washington metropolitan area. Weve taken some of the earliest and most aggressive actions to try and mitigate and flatten the curve, flatten and lengthen the