mainstream media until now. fox news pounds eric holder after a house committee votes to hold him in contempt while msnbc acts as the attorney general's defense lawyer. >> nobody in the mainstream media was paying any attention to this scandal. fox news was. nobody else was covering it. >> well, not quite. but have journalists blown the story, or is this scandal manufactured by the right wing media? and we'll tackle these television topics. ann curry appears to be on her way out at the "to dashow. why was her partnership with matt lauer such a flop? "20/20" sits down with rielle hunter. >> do you think he wanted the baby? >> i think that he thought the timing was terrible. >> do we really need to hear more from john edwards's mercurial mistress? and erin sorkin's the newsroom debuts tonight. >> i didn't know people didn't like working for me. >> do you care? >> of course i care. anybody would care. but honestly, i don't. i do. i am a perfectly nice guy. i have the focus group data to prove it. >> does it capture the craziness of television news? i'm howard kurtz. this is "reliable sources." we want to begin by showing you live pictures of tahrir square in cairo. egyptian authorities this past hour announcing that mohammed morsi, the candidate of the muslim brotherhood, has won the presidential runoff election. thousands of people there favorable to the muslim brotherhood cause celebrating that announcement. candy crowley will have a live report later this hour. it's not that the media have utterly ignored fast and furious, the justice department sting involving gunsn mexico that tragically resulted in one agent's death. it's been mentioned at least 30 times in "new york times" i stories and 40 in the "washingn post." as the cases ebbed and flowed and republican congressman darrell issa has demanlded more and more documents, the case has been a fixture on conservative websites and on fox news. when president obama invoked executive privile to withhold the documents and issa's committee voted that eric er should be held in contempt, the story played out in very different ways on the cable networks. >> not only is the administration not willing to provide requested documents in the fast and furious investigation, it seems their testimony is also less than truthful. >> tonight, is president obama hiding something? if so, what and why? >> republicans are trying to take out president obama at any cost. today the united states attorney general was collateral damage. >> joining us now to talk about the way this highly partisan battle has been covered in new york, amy holmes. anchor for the blaze on gbtv. in washington, washington correspondent for the new yorker and now cnn contributor. were the media a bit slow on this fast and furious investigation or has it simply become a classic, idealogically driven con tro searcy? >> there seem to be these controversies that both sides become really, really interted and obsessed in. and pound the media for not covering. at a certain point it becomes inevitable it gets widespread attention because it plays into the back and forth between the republicans and the democrats. for a long time this issue was isolated to the conservative media because as essentially there wasn't much administration respse. so there wasn't this sort of food fight nature that, you know, cable and the newspapers thrive on. once yave issa pushing the contempt vote in his committee and you have the white house responding, you have -- you know, you have your classic le/right partisan spat .at gets a lot more coverage. >> amy holmes, is that right? it's a sleft/right partisan spat and you have accusations of a cover-up it's easier for the rest of the media to sink their selective teeth into? >> i think once the white hoe got involved with trying to assert executive privilege or suggest it. attorney general eric holder is a member of the administration. he's our attorney general. he's testified up on the hill over half a dozentimes. i think at this point it seems like it's a bit in the weeds. you have timelines. what did he know? when did he know it? now the mainstream media is really going to have to grapple with that and not just a he said/she said story but what's the real truth of the matter? >> one another point. one lesson from covering the inton era is do not ignore fringe stories. the fringiest stories of the clinton era eventually led to that man's impeachment. they burst into the mainstream media and don't go away. >> let's be fair in just pointing out that underlying this investigation is a very serious matt in which many guns were let loose in mexico. supposedly monitored by justice department officia. one ent, brian terry, ended up getting shot and killed. fox news has been pong this story for months and months. the theme we saw a little at the top is what is obama hiding. >> i think to say the media n't interested in scandal is preposterous. we love scandal. i love scandal. that's the theme that really drives us. >> what's the scandal? >> it's a scandal of government but not a political scandal. what's the worst case? the obama administration was continuing something basically going on under the bush administration. you know, did they try to cover up some embarrassing things afterwards? there's just -- there's nothing conceivable that would bring this into a major political scandal here. i think that's why people have been slo get on board. it's not an ideological thing. i think the media would love to have an obama scandal to cover. >> i would agree to this extent. eric holder doesn't look like a assic noncooperating witness. he's testified a number of times. let me toss it back to amy with this question. when the president invoked executive privilege, the media certainly reported. but i would say didn't pounce on videotape of candidate barack obama accusing george w. bush of hiding behind executive privilege. >> indeed he did. i thought you were going to play the tape. president obama, then senator obama, pouncing on president bush. yes, the media got interested in this idea of hypocrisy. i think saw jon stewart made great fun of it. intermof the mainstream media and their interest in this reason really is the f the partisanship of the media. i mean, brian terry should be a hoehold name. this died at the hands of guns that had been illegally pushed to mexican drug dealers across border without the mexican government's knowledge of this. when he's saying it started under the bush administratn, that's a little spin by the administration. the operation under the bush administrationas different from this one. i wonder if it's too technical in terms of these details. but in this story we actually do have a smoking gun quite literally. >> a little bit of spin? >> i mean, you know, they had -- the program had othernames. it's technical. this notion of gun walking started in 2006 and has been going on since then. i think issa's committee was terrific and sensible in doing this investigation. but it's interesting the fight over executive privilege now is not about anything that led up to agent terry's death. it's about things that happened months after agent terry's death. by definition it's not about the core scandal. >> i want to follow up, amy. you're accusing the media of partisanship. are you suggesting because brian terry unfortunately was killed in the line of duty, border patrol agent, is not more widely known because the media were covering up or minimizing this on behalf of the obama administration? >> some cld say gun control or walking guns across the border. but really at the heart of this is someone whose life was taken by illegal gun selling being pushed by the administration. i don't want to get into the details exactly of this case. however, i think if this were under the bush administration in this exact same instance, i think the media would be all over this. they would be exploding these characters. we know exactly who's who. we see missing girls in aruba and know more about that. >> why the media spends a lot of time on missing girls a whole separate issue, right, amy? i think one of the things that, you know, these things become so partisan so fast. >> that was true when democrats were demanding democrats from the bush administration. i covered controversies during the reagan administration where democrats were demanding documents. >> both sides become intrenched and marshal arguments to benefit their side. frany then the facts get a little bit out of control. there are allegations now that the administration was pursuing this policy to somehow crack down on gun control in the united states. >> right. >> so, you know -- >> pushed by the nra among others. i want to move on briefly to the veepstakes. you had a report on abc news by jonathan carl this week about the status of one senator, marco rubio, which is romney campaign reacted to rather quickly. let's roll it. >> abc's john carlos learned one of the most highly tout and popular choiced, florida senator marco rubio is not even being considered now by the romney team. >> that's right. this is a surprise. >> the story was entirely false. marco rubio iseing thoroughly vetted as pa of our dana milban. when abc said rubio had not been asked to turn over hundreds of pages of paperwork on financial and other interests, romney comes out and says he's being vetted. all depends on vetted. did he knock down that story? >> i don't think so. this is the reason why it's preposterous for us to speculate on the vice president. there's onrson w kns this. maybe one person. that would be romney. maybe he shares it with somebody leading his search committee. we have no ability to report on this sort of thing. maybe it was true when abc reported it. but romney can instantly make that untrue. we have no power over this. inevitably we speculate, come up with dozens of names. in the end the vice presnd who' vetted and not being vetted. it's certainly important to look at the actual candidates who are in the mix. look at their records. the ones that might actually be in the running. >> fictional short list a list probably -- so and so is being mentioned. politico went pretty heaven. amy holmes again, heavy a day or two later saying tim pawlenty, nowadvisers. i'm reminded of 2008 when nobody thought it was going to be sarah palin. >> absolutely. the scorecard is not good. oneaw sarah palin coming. no one saw dick cheney coming. when bill clinton chose al gore and the conventional wisdom was he would never choose a fellow baby boomer from the south. he wants geographic diversity. i looked at this story. i was thinking this is the kind of thing lindsay lohan does every day. head of hopper would have been proud of this. campaign manipulation. media hype. it's a win/win for everybody. marco rubio's selling a book. the campaign is selling a storyline. the media is selling newspapers. >> i would notave expected the lindsay lohan reference. >> alwaylike to work her in. when we come back, politico sus penlds its white house reporter for negative cable comments and tweets about mitt romney. was he way out of bounds? dude you don't understand, this is my dad's car. look at the car! my dad's gonna kill me dude... [ male announcer ] the security of a 2012 iihs top safety pick. the volkswagen passat. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the 2012 passat for $209 a month. that's the power of german engineering. it's hard to see opportunity in today's chaenging environment. unless you have the right perspective. bny mellon wealth management has the vision and experience to look beyond the obvious. we'll uncover opportunities, find hidden risk, and make success a reality. bny mellon wealth management so how much do we owe you? at'll $973.42. ya know, your rates and fees aren't exactly competitive. who do you think i am, quicken loans? [ spokesman ] when you refinance your mortgage with quicken loans, you'll find that our rates and fees are extremely competitive. because the last thing you want is to spend too much on your mortgage. one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. ♪ one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. one is for a clean, wedomestic energy future that puts us in control. our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar. though all energy development comes with some risk, we're committed to safely and responsibly producing natural gas. it's not a dream. america's natural gas... putting us in control of our energy future, now. morning, boys. so, i'm working on a cistern intake valve, and the guy hands me a locknut wrench. no way! i'm like, what is this, a drainpipe slipknot? wherever your business takes you, nobody keeps you on the road like progressive commercial auto. [ flo speakinga se ] [ shouting in japanese ] we work wherever you work. now, that's progressive. call or click today. joe williams is white house correspondent for politico. he's now been suspended for the what the website's editors call conduct that fell short of our standards for fairness and judgment. especially unfortunate way. part of this has to do with what joe williams said on c. t's take a look. >> romney is very, very comfortable, it seems, with people who are like him. that's one of the reasons why he seems so stiff and awkward in some town hall settings. why he can't relate to people other than tha but when he comes on fox and friends, they'relike him. they're white folks who are very much relaxed in their own company. >> dana milbank, did joe williams go too far as a reporter in what he just said about mitt romney. >> i think he's wrong in the sense that romney is equal opportunity uncomfortable with all people. on the merits i think he s wrong. i suspect that that comment by itself would not have gotten him into trouble. i think it was in combination with other things he had done. you could see how, look, when we're saying things unfiltered on live television you can sometimes say something that's not quite right in a way that wouldn't happen in print with editors. >> you're saying there's a pattern? >> that's certainly what his editors at politico were saying. there was a pattern. that's a different mat zbler amy holmes, when williams says there are white folks very relaxed in their own company, did that strike your ear as being what racist? >> i don't know about racist. not particularly insightful. it doesn't really give us any insight into mitt romney. agree with dana in terms of him being awkward and stiff, isn't that mitt romney's rap? you don't need to throw race into the mix to inflame the situation. it sort of reminds me, too, back in 2008 and the coverage of president, then senator, obama, and the idea he was so comfortable with groups. yet at the time mike allen told me that actually president obama was quite stiff and cool and aloof when it came to reporters. in terms of people's public versus private persona, there can be a real difference and di v inju divergen divergence. >> he didn't get into trouble for what he wrote for politico but comments he made on msnbc and twitter. >> look, i'm really reluctant to criticize people who say something off on television. >> because tomorrow it could be you? >> yeah, tomorrow it could be you. we speak a lot. we tweet a lot. sometimes we're going to say something that is off. look, politico encouraging their correspondents to go on television. >> yeah. >> they encourage them to tweet. it's a very different environment than when you're writing. one of the things that prevents bias and makes sure that reporters are doing things in a fair way and in a publication is many layers of editors reading the copy and getting that stuff out. you go on tv or on twitter and you're much more unfiltered. >> if a number of your comments are all in the direction of being somewhat negative toward romney and not negative toward president obama and you're a white house correspondent you've got a problem. >> i'm not excusing it. one of the issues is when you go into the lair of a very ideological host, whether it's on msnbc or fox, sometimes the questions are geared to sort of bait the reporter into being much more ideological than they would be in print. i don't know exactly if that was the case here. martin beshear is a man of the left. he may have baited joe a little on that. that doesn't excuse him. i think it's a danger for beat reporters who try and avoid that. >> it points to a much larger problem we're all dealing with now. that is when you tweet something or when you make some remark on the show, well, i'myingt for the "washington post" or for the new yorker or in this case for politico. and peopleay not make a distinction that, well, what you write in the newspaper or the magazine is actually edited and careful. otherwise you might just be popping off. it's treated the same. >> let me briefly touch on one other issue here in this segment. you had this odd coincidence where "the washington post" and "new york times" on successive daysad front page stories about bain capital. "new york times" saying bain got big fees when companies it bought failed or went bankrupt or lost a lot of money. "washington post" talking about companies taken over by mitt romney former firm, bain capital, outsourcing jobs over seas. ed gillespie saying this morning the post report was shoddy journalism and at no time ve enough details. what do we make ofthis? >> pajama clad bloggers unite. these sort of technical he said/she said wsh we talked about this before, stories tend to be left all over by the log sphe -- ogesphere. mainstream media is catching up. one camp makes an accusation. the other camp rebuts it. the media reports on the back and forth but doesn't actually get into the meat of the matter. >> this was real reporting about a company -- the experience which for mitt romney is one of his central credentials running for president. whether you think the stories were overplayed or not. >> i think it's legit if you're going to run on your record at bain and you're giving that as the central reason why you could get this economy moving in a way that obama hasn't,asicay every aspect of that record should be picked over. >> and both candidatese de bain an issue. on both sides. it's completely fair game. bain has jumped into this and is defending their record. in the case of the post story bain was working with them extensively on that. i don't think the romney c campaign wanted to get involved. >> you reject the charge of shoddy journalism? >> there has never been one column mention of shoddy journalism in the "washington post." >> thank you, everybody, for stopping by. we'll bright back. we all need it. to move. to keep warm. to keep us fed. to make clay piggies. but to keep doing these things in the future... at shell, we believe the world needs a broader mix of energies. that's why we're supplying natural gas to generate cleaner electricity... that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and it's also why, with our partner in brazil, shell is producing ethanol - a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane. ♪ >>a minute, mom! let's broaden the world's energy mix. let's go. it doesn't look risky. i mean, phil, does this look risky to you? nancy? fred? no. well it is. in a high-risk area, there's a 1-in-4 chance homes like us will flood. i'm glad i got flood insurance. fred, you should look into it. i'm a risk-taker. [ female announcer ] only flood insurance covers floods. visit floodsmart.gov/risk to learn your risk. ryan lizza of the new yorker and cnn still with us. you said the other morning -- km kmuz me. you said a n a recent interview twitter and forms popping up online are ruining political media. >> giving the interview while riding amtrak. >> no more off the cuff. >> i just finished this long piece about obama and -- >> second term. >> second term. talking to a lot of white house officials, campaign officials. and the experience of getting administration officials, campaign officials on the record is regarder for me than it's ever been. i've been doing this for 15 years. people don't want to sit and have a conversation like we're having right now. because they live in fear of making a gaffe. they live in fear of saying -- especially the policy people. they live in fear of saying something stupid that gets the campaign in trouble. >> the private sector is doing fine. >> the private sector is doing fine. the general election so far since the primaries ended, it's basically been a gaffe a week. that's what gets covered. i wasn't saying that twitter specifically is the problem. it's one more 24/7 medium where stuff gets amplified and the campaign haso spend all their time pushing back on stuff. >> if there were no twitter and -- >> it's not just -- >> you're part of the problem. you're on twitter. of tre par problem. i'm part of the problem. if therre no online forums like that, cable news specializes in jumping on the gaffe of the day, gaffe of the hour. >> iidn' just mean to pick on twitter. it's a cable news problem, blogging problem. it's the obsession with the political press corps of grabbing a quote oft out of context and hammering these guys when quite frankly i think we ow better. because the two campaigns do it to each other, we cover that, t in the middle of food fights. >> you're saying collectively it's our collective fault as journalists that politicians won't talk to the media or won't talk to the media in an unguarded way because they fear this kind of selective -- >> when you do a big interview with a politician, your goal is to break news right there. >> because they're trying to stay on the talking points. you're trying to get them off message. >> there's nothing wrong with breaking news. sometimes the breaking news is let's just get them to say something a little off and that will go viral. i understand the sort of incentives for that. but, look, i do it, too. i remember running a piece last year where there was a line in the piece, obama's leading from behind quote. >> which became very famous. >> i would defend that quote in the original context. >> it was in the context of libya. >> it was a very specific context. totally defensive. >> the only thing anybody remembers about thpiece. >> exactly. 12,000 words. it went viral on the right and hammed the administration. >> you're making the case briefly to administration officials, this is a long, seriously reported, seriously thought out piece. comealk to. they are skeptical or hesitant because of this -- >> it doesn't matter if they trust you 100% to get the context. >> it's not only you. >> you can post a transcript. doesn't matter. it's going to get ripped out and go viral. these campaigns are all about messages for both sides. anything that strays from that message they live in fear of. >> all right. ryan lizza, we'll see what of this conversation gets tweeted out. >> during commercial. >> thanks very much for joining us. ahead on "reliable sources" the "today" show prepares to dump ann curry. chris cuomo sits down with reyer rielle hunter. was john edwards' mistress worth an hour of primetime on tv? the stress of the day, or the to-do list of tomorrow. only 14 clubs pick up the right one and drive it right down the middle of pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org. trouble with a car insurance claim. [ voice of dennis ] switch to allstate. their claim service is so good, now it's guaranteed. [ normal voice ] so i can trust 'em. unlike randy. are you in good hands? muslim brotherhood cndidate mohammed morsi the winner of e jips's presidential election. the announcement came just about an hour ago and was met with massive cheers in cairo's tahrir square. morsi defeated pro-military candidate ahmed shafiq who served as prime minister under former president hosni mubarak. joining me is cnn's foreign affairs correspondent jill dougherty as we watch these coinng live pictures from what could have been a very different scene had the former prime minister won. the question is, how does the administration take this? we haven't heard from them yet. >> not yet. there's likely, we believe, to be some type of statement coming from the white house. but i think you'd have to say, if it had been shafiq who was the former prime minister, you would have had probably a much more guarded reaction. after all, right before that election, the military had -- had taken over again. they had dissolved the parliament. they had taken things back into their hands. if shafiq had won, yowould have been going down that direction of the military still controls things. where did democracy go? so with morsi, the voice of the people is there. so it's easier for the administration to say, democra continues, we hope. of course, they're not going to jump on a band wgon -- >> isn't that the big question now? isn't the big question, does democrntinue? will the military cede col to him? there's no reason actually looking at this to believe they will. >> absolutely right. in fact, what they did before was they took a lot of power away from him. the president, any president right at this point, would have much less control. e litary crucially, at least at this point, control the budget. they control who is going to be writing the constitution. and the president basically as one reporter in ou briefing at the state department said, he canrder lunch. >> next big question just quickly. what do we need to know next? >> i think you need to hear from morsi. what does he plan on doing? tuz he feel he has any power? does he really move forward on the democratic issues that they need to move on? candy, he does have to work with a coalition. and in parliament, the muslim brotherhood still needs other parties to do what they want to do. >> jill dougherty, our foreign affairs correspondent will be with us at noon. cnn will provide continuing coverage of developments in egypt throughout the day. "reliable sources" with howard kurtz will return after this break. sleep train has your ticket to tempur-pedic. experience the pressuieving comfort of tempur-pedic, and sleep risk-free with sleep train's 100-day money back guarantee. get 36 months interest-free financing: no down, and no interest for 3 years. plus, get free same-day delivery. sleep train's 100-day money back guarantee, interest-free financing, and free delivery? that's the ticket! sleep train's ticket to tempur-pedic is on now. ♪ sleep train ♪ your ticket to a better night's sleep ♪ ann curry had been passed over once before. so it was in her contract that if meredith vieira left the "today" show she would be become the co-host. that one year ago is what happened. >> welcome to "today" on a thursday morning. i'm matt lauer. >> i'm ann curry in for, i guess, nobody this morning. me, myself and i. >> it's nice to be able to say that, isn't it? >> it's crazy. i can't believe it. it's such a thrill. >> curry had been known as a hard news reporter par shooting at the trouble spots around the globe and interviewing world leaders. >> i know people, mr. president, who i believe were innocent who were tortured. >> transla it's possible. i don't have such information. but curry and matt lauer never looked like a comfortable pairing. this week nbc began negotiating sime curry for a new as attlwentwrong? ining us in chicago, mauen ryan, television critic for the huffington post. in new york, adam buckman, television krit for xfinity. and david zorack. ann curry is a world-class journalist. she is at her core a hard news reporter. >> ratings is the answer. as everyone has reported. >> "good morning america" catching up. >> "good moshing america" catching themg. even though it was o couple days in the last 16 years, that's psychological. that made a big, big difference in terms of what they can sell advertising for over at abc. we know the morning is the ball game in terms of news divisions as profit centers. you have to get that right. so the psychology of morning television, where you have this kindf family and people have to feel comfortable with it, if that doesn't work, they know it. even though she's only been in there a year, nbc has a right to make this move. i wouldn't criticize them. what i'd criticize them for is the way they're handling it. >> maureen ryan, well matt lauer is clearly the megastar at the "today" show after years of getting it done, it often seems in these suatis like it's the woman who takes the fall. >> well, i -- you know, i'm alive to that possibility. but it seems like katie couric obviously did amazingly well there for many years. i just think it's a very strange skill set to have. it's a very distinctive thing to be able to do, to have that warm neit'sno refle in ind m cu i think it's just a reflection of this is a very specific skill set and a specific mood and tone people are going for in the morning. i feel like you kind of either have it or don't. i think she's a good reporter and an excellent person to have. i would agree with did that i do feel to some degree she's been hung out to dry. that's not really that fair to her. although, you know, nbc has to look at this in the bigger context of things at nbc have not been going well for a long time. i actually think giving her a year was fairly generous. >> the reality, adam buckman, is that a hard charging, very successful correspondent is not necessarily a great morning host because you have to be able to flip from world cses to doing the cooking s ining segments. >> she wotinexperienced in this. she was the second tier substitute on the "today" show for 12 or 15 years. she was not an unknown quantity. she's being scapegoated. she has been a part of the "today" show family for years and years and years. always a credible substitute. always seemed to get along on air with matt lauer. frankly what i've seen of the "today" show lately is many of the segments are stale and ill considered. i think the show has major sort of general problems. i don't think ann curry was the problem here. >> t. let's keep in mind it's still the number one show. i'm not disputing what adam you hinted at this .before is it humiliated that the story leaked to "the new york times." nbc hasn't commented. nbc certainly hasn't denied th weird limbo. >> i don't have lot of sympathy for a lot of people on television. seeing last week when the ladies home journal excerpts came out from an interview she had done. >> i have that here. i'll put on the screen. before theews broke about her likely to be leaving, ann curry said it's hard not to take it personally, talking about criticism. you worry, am i not good enough? am i not what people need? am i asking the right questions? when people say netive things or speculate, you can't help but feel hurt. >> and she talkedbout being there, i think, five years or ten years. sort of her down the road plans for it. you take away this whole pr spin where they can say, oh, it was a mutual move or whatever. it's really embarrassing. also that little graphic, the little script that ran under her by mistake -- >> i think we have that. >> it may have been a total accident. >> then in the snarky, mean media world in which we live online, they just pound her every day. did ann curry show up for work today? that's horrible for her to have to go through that. >> does nbc risk this becoming a messy breakup? i can't help but remember the debra norville situation several years ago. she was perceived as a home wrecker after jane pauley left the show. is this perceived -- >> i think maybe it's turned out to not be a great fit for whatever reason. i do think there are other possibilities of other problems within the "today" show. i don't at all -- i wouldn't at all put this all on ann curry. i think nbc has had a lot of pr problems. i think in the grand scheme of things nbc has done wrong, i don't think it's going to rank up there in the top ten. pretty insane top ten. i do think there's going to be a perception problem that they -- that who's in control here? they can't control the story. it's playing out very s mely, very publicly. sort of like the conan o'brien situation but in the morning. >> we all the feasted on that. let me jump in here. i want to play a clip from something that aired on abc's "20/20." an hour long interview with chris cuomo's rielle hunter. let me show you that and we'll talk on the other side. that would not be the clip. >> what do you think the reaction is when the woman who's sleeping with the husband starts talking about the wife who is now dead from cancer? >> there are a lot of people that'll go, wow, i understand. i get it. there are a lot of people who will be outraged. >> adam buckman, abc it tos credit no longer pays for interviews. is an hour on primetime with john edwards''s mistress worthy of that kind of prominence? >> the reason we're talking about oday iauses bec this is a program that deals with television news and talking about what things were appropriate and what things were not. you know, yes, that show came out of the abc news division. but it was really no different thanu know, an entertainment show that would air in primetime on a slowriday night in the summer. it was preceded by an hour of -- collection of videotapes of people caught on tape losing their tempers, including a lot of celebrities such as alil al qaeda baldwin recently. in the context of that itd really broke in news. was really aired for the purposes of promoting herbook >> her new book. right. let me jump in here. we're short on time. >> giving her an hour was 60 minutes too many in primetime. especially how abc had that blocked because of 20/20 programming. jerry sandusky news breaks minutes into the story. th't break. >> they had a graphic showing he'd beencted on 45 sex abuse charges. what did you think of chris cuomo's questioning. not an easy situation. >> i thought chris cuomo did a decent job of it. what could he do with this moony answers she gave him? honestly, outside of stop everything and say this is crazy stuff. it's not okay to do this stuff for love. >> rielle hunter is on the book tour now. she'll be on piers morgan this coming week. after the break, critics are ripping sorkin's new show. are journalists being a tad sensitive to criticism? isn't it time the automobile advanced? introducing cue in the all-new cadillac xts. the simplicity of a tablet has come to your car. ♪ the all-new cadillac xts has arrived. and it's bringing the future forward. i tried weight loss plans... but their shakes aren't always made for people with diabetes. that's why there's glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. and they have six grams of sugars. with fifteen grams of protein to help manage hunger... look who's getting smart about her weight. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes. like a ramen noodle- every-night budget. she thought allstate car insurance was out of her reach. until she heard about the value plan. see how much you could save with allstate. are you in good hands? producer aaron sorkin is famous for the west wing and the movie about facebook, the social network. he's taking on cable news in a series of hbo. part of cnn's parent company called "the newsroom." it debuts tonight. take a glimpse. >> will? >> don't talk to me unless you absolutely have to. >> i absolutely have to. i thought this would be a fwood time to get a couple things straight. >> i'm on tv in 190 seconds. >> you've got my contract. the thing you have to know is between 8:00 and 9:00 you are completely mine. for an hour, five times a week, i own you. >> she is his producer and his ex-girlfriend. plot revolves around that. did this sorkin series capture cable news or the real newsroom in any way? >> to me, it really didn't. there are certainly aspects of it of people in conflict reporting stories that seem famiarbut it's all about t gree glory of the news anchor. which i don't know that that's necessarily -- i feel like the age of that sort of news anchor as star who's going to set us all straight, they keep referencing cronkite and murrow and these kind of giants and so forth. but i feel like the news industry operates in a very different way. you know, earlier in the program people were discussing, you know, twitter and blogs. you know, online journalism and so forth. i don't think aaron sorkin really cares about that rl he's kinrecreated the news ecosystem from the '90s. i don't know if that's really that accurate to me anymore. >> adam buckman, daniels pls that wacced out anchorman. sorkin says this has nothing to do with keith olbermann, even though he spent time hanging out with him as he was getting ready to do this. the anchor is one strange dude. does this work as television? >> it didn't work as television for me. i watched the first episode. i thought, well, this is okay for a premier episode, a television pilot. sometimes they get going. for me when i watched the second episode a couple of days ago, actually, i found it difficult to actually get through the episode. the characters are given to a lot of sorkinesque speech making. this worked on "the west wing." for me it didn't ring true for what i about new rooms, that people speechify and sermonize and are that earn eflt with the stories they're working on. none of the cynicism that you and i are accustomed to. >> you and i will disagree. that's long, endless, wind bag pompous speeches that are so self absorbed, they just went on and on and on. i thought it just drained the energy out of the program. >> wind bag, pompous, i think you might have given away your feeling a little bit. you're very clear about it. i read the review. >> i wanted to like it. i like sorkin and i like doing something on cable. boy, these speeches. >> howie, i do like it. in fact, i think it's one of the best 20 pilots i've seen in the last 20 years. here's why i think, adam doesn't resemble any news rooms he's seen today. i think sorkin is reaching for something very way up there that's hard to reach for. i think he gets enough for this to be an outstanding series. that's a newsroom. and an ernestness and a sense of purpose we have lost in the media. i don't think it's just cable news. i think it's across the board and i think it's particularly true in the national press. you know, in the reviews that have criticized them primarily have said, oh, it's so -- it's like a high school speech when they say we are here to serve democracy. well, maybe it is like a high school speech, but that's why we're here. if we remember that, if we remember that, almost everything else makes sense. and today almost nothing makes sense to most people. >> you need a television series. maureen, is there anything to the notion that it's basically journalists reviewing this and journalists are maybe a little offended by the which cable news is den graded on the show? >> i completely reject the idea that people are reviewing this negatively because it's striking too close to home. are you telling me a guy who won an oscar for a movie i really liked or made a tv show i really liked, i had it out for him. i don't think it works as drama. >> thank you, everyone. still to come on this program, msnbs manningals a tape of mit. a new yorker writer engages in plagiarism of himself. the media monitor, straight ahead. honoring america's troops. which is actually quite fitting because geico has been serving the military for over 75 years. aawh no, look, i know this is about the troops and not about me. write ght, but iletto t this?ike that. geo. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. [ thunk ] sweet! [ male announcer ] the solid thunk of the door on the jetta. thanks, mister! [ meow ] [ mal announcer ] another exa. that's the pow of german engiering. right now lease the 2012 jetta for $159 a month. with two times the points on dining in restaurants, you may find yourself asking why not, a lot. chase sapphire preferred. how math and science kind of makes the world work. in high school, i had a physics teacher by the name of mr. davies. he made physics more than theoretical, he made it real for me. we built a guitar, we did things with electronics and mother boards. that's where the interest in engineering came from. so now, as an engineer, i have a career that speaks to that passion. thank you, mr. davies. throughout our entire lives. ♪ one a day women's 50+ is a complete multi-vitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. ♪ it has more of seven antioxidants to support cell health. that's one a day women's 50+ healthy advantage. time for now for the media monitor. our look at the hits and errors. emily afterfi who writes the advice column for "slate disclosed three issues of sexual abuse involving serious groping and fondling before she was 20. the latehe bryan. afterfi didn't report the incident at the time and says, quote, i'm aware i'll be assailed for besmirching the memory of a distinguished man. as the mother of a 16-year-old daughter she finally felt compelled to go public and that took guts. ever since george bush senior seemed surprised by a supermarket scanner, the media had been on the lookout for out-of-touch cdidates. msc appeared t catch mitt romney at this. >> take a look at this. mitt romney has not been in too many wawas. >> press a touch town keypad, toh this, touch, this, there's your sandwich. it's amazing. >> it's amazing. >> but as first pointed out by a blogger named super mexican, here is the problem. that clip was deceptive li edited. he started out talking about a doctor being entangled in paperwork, here is how the anecdote ended. >> it's amazing. people in the private sector learned to compete. it's time to bring competition to the federal government. romney wasn't amazed by the touch screen but the context between a supermarket chain and the government. that kind of editing is enough to give you indigestion. andrea mitchell played the full sound bite the next day but expressed no reet for the early editing. we told you about a bogus account that the e.p.a. was flying shy spooi drones. gan kelly aired this collection. we identified the ir craft as being unmanned drones. in fact, the epa is flying these missions and taking pictures from manned aircraft. we apologize for the confusion. >> at the risk of droning on, journalists can avoid many of these mistakes with a single phone call. here is an existential question, can you plagiarize yourself? the answer appears to be yes. jonah lara wrote material he left written. other examples quickly resurfaced. the new yorker slapped an editor's note expressing regret. lehrer told "the new york times" it was a stupid thing to do and incredibly lazy and absolute