>> we'll examine the frenetic coverage of the movie theater shooting. conservative commentators join the call for mitt romney to reduce his tax returns. is there right in revolt against the republican candidate? plus, yahoo! taps google executive marisa maher as its new ceo and it's been downright adoring. >> google geek to yahoo! ceo, and she's going to be a first-time mommy. >> with so few female bosses in silicon valley, is the press putting her on a pedestal? i'm howard kurtz, and this is "reliable sources." perhaps the single worst thing that news organizations do after a crazed gunman opens fire on a crowd is rush to judgment about the affiliation or beliefs of the shooter as abc news did. >> there's a james holmes of aurora, colorado, page on the tea party site, as well, talking about him joining the tea party last year. we don't know if this is the same james holmes. but james holmes of aurora, colorado. >> it turned out to be someone with the same name. and abc and brian ross apologized. that was a terrible blunder. the other troubling thing that particular in particular does is to turn such an atrocities into ideological fodder while all the victims are still being treated. msnbc had a gun-control debate just hours after the shootings, and there was this gun control discussion on cnn. >> honestly, i think this is the wrong night to be doing this. i wish you'd waited to have this segment until after the funerals. >> a lot of people have said that today. a lot of people who don't want strengthening gun control have said this is not the date to debate. it i tell you the day to debate it would be yesterday to have prevented this happening. >> other pundits said there was no need for some grand policy debate. >> once again we have mass murder in america. and the killer is a young man who was simply out of his mind. nobody's fault. it's no policy deficit. it's just an atrocity that's impossible to explain. >> joining us to examine the coverage of the colorado shooting in minneapolis, political correspondent for "the guardian." and here in washington, rame ramesh panuru from "political review." bob cusack from political newspaper "the hill." bob, why the great rush by abc too report what turned out to be flatly wrong information it the alleged shooter? >> that's a pretty bad mistake. obviously journalists in that situation, you're doing research, who is this guy -- you can't say that on television unless you confirm it. especially for such a common name. a bad mistake. i think generally the media did a good job, whether bill o'reilly or -- they went to straight news coverage on this. to make that kind of mistake, quite poor. >> infuriated the tea party and rightly so. we saw piers morgan a moment ago in the early hours after this tragedy. he tweeted, "america has got to do something about its gun laws." then breitbart.com, the conservative site founded, threw up a headline, "cnn, piers morgan exploits for gun control." >> i am pretty latitudena irs an -- >> can you explain that for people like me who don't get it? >> i know that if you do believe that stronger gun control laws would have prevented this from happening, which i think is pretty dubious, but if you do believe that, i don't see why you wouldn't make that argument on that day when people are paying attention and it might make an impact. >> the same breitbart site that talked about piers morgan exploiting the situation, puts up the headline, "joem could be re -- james holmes could be registered democrat." then update, may not be registered to vote. >> yes. people get things wrong. news organizations get things wrong, you know, in the sort of craziness right after an event like this. i think what's really missing from the coverage, however, is context. something about just how rare these kinds of shootings are. if we're going to have a gun policy debate, it probably shouldn't actually be about the kinds of assault weapons he used. 75% of all gun violence in the u.s. is actually committed with handguns. it's far more prevalent. you know, people die from gun violence all the time. chicago has seen a wave of violence. regularly has double-digit people dying over a single weekend. that doesn't get coverage. that doesn't get -- the kind of killing that happen every day that could be prevented aren't getting the kind of coverage that this gets. >> well, they certainly get local coverage. but the national media don't turn it into some kind of crusade. coming back -- >> we don't have a policy debate. we don't have a policy debate or killings because they happen all the time. they do get local coverage. that might be where a policy debate would make a difference. >> i would agree with ramesh to this extent. gun control, what kind of weapons are used. other security matters, we saw virginia tech. a legitimate part of the debate. i feel so strongly about this -- how about waiting a decent interval, maybe a day until, you know, the families have had time to absorb the shock, the victims have been identified. why this rush to do it immediately? >> if you talk to gun-control advocates, they are so frustrated because we've had these shooting massacres. and the nra is very, very powerful in washington and in the halls of congress. and democrats have shied away from the gun-control debate. so when they see this, they're just -- they want to speak out because they have an ability to possibly influence the debate. >> because they have the nation's attention for this rare moment because most of the time the attitude among journalists in washington is, well, gun control, it's not going anywhere, both parties consider it a political loser. >> that's right. >> now the media machine, and there are a lot of anchors and correspondent was all the networks that have flown out to colorado to do live shots and special reports, everybody, every network's got a special hour, now it's going to dig up every detail about james holmes' life. and it will be served up as political fodder. >> right. and i think one other thing we need to keep in mind here in addition to avoiding sensationalism and rushing from judgment in the case of abc is let's not make this guy into a celebrity. i mean, we know that many of these mass murderers study the coverage of previous mass murderers and part of what they want is publicity. let's be mindful -- obviously we've got a report on -- got to report on it, explain what happened, who this guy was. let's be mindful of that and not try to make him into a big deal. >> i would go a step further, ana marie. i don't care -- other than how he got the guns and how he got 2,000 rounds of ammunition, i read through the mail, i don't care about in guy. i don't care about whether he was disappointed in school. i don't want the psychological studies of him because anybody who shoots up a movie theater with men, women, and children is crazy. so much a sociopath i think it's almost fruitless to try to figure out what was it that made him snap. what do you think? >> well, another piece of context for this from the kinds of studies that surround this particular kind of violence, people don't understand psychopathology. it is kind of a mystery to the people who are professionals in that field. so yeah, it doesn't do a lot of good to try and figure out why this happened. but i guess i want to say something about whether or not we should do coverage in the immediate aftermath. i want to be careful about what saying the media should and shouldn't do because these are going to happen. i think ramesh is right in saying we should be mindful. abc probably should put everything in context. put everything sort of in the area, what they say, any news organization should be careful to say that we don't really know very much. and when you don't know, you say you don't know. you don't go with information that you think might be true. you know probably better than any of us here the pressure to break news. that pressure has become so overwhelming that people will go with false news. >> we saw this with the supreme court decision on obama care resulted in people going on the air at this network and others before -- realizing what the high court had done. but you know, all these profilers are being trotted out to psycho analyze the guy, as i said, i don't care. i don't want to turn him interest a celebrity. i don't want to turn him into a national object of fascination. at the same time, it seems like the whole dna of journalism is weak. there are unanswered questions. we have to answer them. maybe some questions can't be answered. >> that's right. and on television, you don't say, well, i don't know. and i think that's -- that's the point here is that when you don't know, you can't speculate. especially because we don't know what he's going to be saying in the next couple of days. it's just -- fruitless to speculate. >> and i think that raises another question which is everybody's been jumping all over brian ross. i think appropriately so. but what about stuart stephanopoulos? what went through his mind -- he obviously knew that ross was going to say something like that and asked the question. you know, he set it up. he said, you know, we understand there's some information here. something like that. >> i think that's fair because ross -- you know, while has made occasional mistakes, is an award-winning investigative reporter. the anchor is told he has information to report. you can't while sitting in this chair double-check the reporting of your correspondents. >> we haven't heard anything from stephanopoulos about what he knew, was he -- did he say afterward, well, gosh, i mean, you just listen to what ross said, and you have to say if you have any judgment whatsoever, boy, that seems awfully thin. didn't interject anything. >> as well we have the talk because this happened during "the dark knight rises" about "batman" movies, violent movies, the video game debate. you know, when you got 24 hours to fill a lot of columns and newspapers you try to explore every angle, but some of this is fruitless. and on this closing note, happened to notice a piece in "the washington times" by a retired police officer named peter bella who summing up says of the media, they could not resist turning a tragedy into a spectacular national media lollapalooza. it was sad -- pathetic to see how low the media sank in the name of sensationalism. i thought surprisingly the coverage was restrained in most instances but not all. ana marie cox, your thoughts? >> i think that people are starting to learn some lessons about the value of getting thing right first. but -- before, you know, getting things, just getting things out there. and i do think, i'm -- i was pleasantly surprised that there hasn't been a lot of speculation it what part the "batman" movie might have played. as we were saying before, people who are crazy do crazy things. they could be set off by -- by something they read, you know, while sitting on the toilet. they can be -- who knows what makes people do thing that they do? and to try and connect this really specifically to the "batman" movie seems especially kind of inappropriate to me. >> speculation is great whether you're sitting around -- in a bar, gathered around the water cooler. i don't think it has much place particularly at a sensitive time like this in the aftermath of such a tragedy in front of a television camera. we'll have more on this story later in the program. first, when we come back, george will, bill crystal, and "national review" say mitt romney should release his tax returns. is the press turning on the guy? 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[ powers down ] uh-oh, flobot is broken. the "name your price" tool, only from progressive. call or click today. this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. hey america, even though slisa rinna is wearing the new depend silhouette briefs for charity to prove how great the fit is even under a fantastic dress. the best protection now looks, fits and feels just like underwear. we invite you to get a free sample and try one on too. the obama campaign along with liberal commentators has been hammering mitt romney for two weeks for refusing to release more of his tax returns. it was far more striking when national review scolded romney as well, the conservative magazine saying "his current posture is probably unsustainable. in all likelihood he won't be able to maintain a position that looks secretive and is a departure from campaign conventions." there was no shortage of pundits on the right joining the fray. >> here's what he should do -- he should release the tax returns tomorrow. it's crazy. you've got to release six, eight, ten years of back tax returns. >> mitt romney's losing at this point in a big way. if something's going to come out, get it out in a hurry. >> romney and his wife, ann, are insisting in interviews that he won't change his position. and you knew that people would say even "national review," urging romeny to release tax returns -- romney to release tax returns? >> that's right. any time a magazine takes issue with something a candidate is doing, it becomes a little bit of a news story. i don't think, though, that this is something that signifies some big breach on the right. i think this is a tactical disagreement among people who are broadly allied saying this is not the right way for the romney campaign to proceed. and i suspect that's -- the way it's being received in boston, as well. >> ana marie dock, it does tend to undercut the argument that this is the big, bad political media harassing mitt romney. >> i'm not sure it does that. i can't believe i'm agreeing with ramesh, but this is getting the kind of coverage it's getting because it's a rift on the right and people like to cover rifts. and i also want to point out that there's a lot of presidential candidates who have only released limited numbers -- limited tax returns. this convention does ironically go back to his father, the convention of releasing a lot of tax returns. but i'm not sure that it matters to the average voter. what probably matter where if they can make the idea of secrecy stick and if they can make the idea that romney is so rich he does not play by the rules that others play by. i'm not -- >> let me -- i would add that many of these krveg commentators now criticizing romney taxes were not big fans of h during the primary. and somebody who added her voice to this debate is cnn anchor erin burnett. here's what she had to say. >> mitt romney is running on his business expertise. his tax returns are a relevant window into how he conducts his business affairs. if he refuses to releasehem, it is because, one, he had a lot more money in tax shelters in prior years than he does now. two, he did something shady. or three, he's stupid. >> head a straight news ancho-- should a straight news anchor be taking a stance on a hot button issue? >> i know people were not pleased with that. i think that pushes the envelope too far, especially the "he's stupid" part, that rubs republicans the wrong way. and republicans can fire back at that and blame the media for the controversy. >> i think an anchor can say somebody did something stupid. go ahead, ana marie. >> that's one way to heal the rift on the right. when you start doing that kind of name-calling, conservatives might forget that they're angry at romney or forget that they're talking about tactical errors in romney and go into -- to attack the media, will kind of bring them together. i want to point out, we were talking in the last segment about speculation. it's just as inappropriate here as it is in the aurora case. and we don't know why. we don't know what's in the tax returns. we can speculate, and it's found speculate. but there's no point to doing it. >> you have people saying it must show there are years when he didn't pay taxes when nobody has any clue. it is pure speculation. i didn't mean to cut you off. i want to turn to something that i've noticed has really become more and more of a prominent issue in presidential campaigns because of the media coverage. that is when surrogates for the presidential candidate say things that we in the press all jump on. here are three examples if we can roll the tape. >> i wish this president would learn how to be an american. >> either mitt romney, through his own words and his own signature, was misrepresenting his position at bain to the sec which is a felony. >> he ended up not going back at all and retired retro actively. >> okay, john sue? sue? and gillespie, stephanie -- john sununu, ann gillespie, stephanie cutter, why did they go over this about strategists and surrogates? >> i think the other campaigns are egging them on. an arms race on that front in your side makes an issue out of ed gillespie, our side will make an issue out of stephanie cutter. and you know, the idea is you either -- you force the other campaign to either distance itself from one of its own people, which creates all kind of problems on its side, or you force them to look like they're defending the indefensible. >> or get someone to apologize, which sununu did for his choice of words on obama should learn how to be an american. or apologized for his choice of words. ana marie cox, this does turn the media into a 24-hour gaffe patrol. >> it does. again, i have to bring the average voter into the equation who probably doesn't care about the kinds of things that this -- these are, gaffes, unless they reflect on the character of the candidate. and i don't think any of these really do that. these are -- >> don't these campaigns trot out john sununu, former governor of new hampshire, for example, to make this kind of case? and if he is raising questions indirectly or subtly about obama being an american, one could say the campaign is responsible for that. >> oh, the campaign's responsible, but i'm not sure how many people care. like -- i think that, you know, someone like john sununu, the reason surrogates are use sudden to largely gain support in a area where the surrogate is popular. it might matter to people there. i don't think that these fights are something that people will take into account when they're making their actual voting decision unless, you know, the fight get so ugly which it does threaten this time around. >> right. >> if the fight becomes really, really ugly, i think it tends to reflect badly on both candidates, but maybe one will look better than the other. >> on that point, "new york times"/cbs poll showing statistical tie between obama and romney, 47/46. this after two weeks of romney getting hammered and obama's forces controlling the dialogue on bain, on offshore bank accounts on, tax returns. the poll would seem to suggest that we in meetia are atwitter, so to speak, about things average voters are not tuned in. >> privately, republican strategists say mitt romney should be up five points in this economy. and the fact that they're even is good news for president obama. >> let me ask you before we go about "the new york times" story that said the reporters for the times time and po"post" have gotten into negotiating with sources, campaign officials, but what can be used on the record. they get court approval and try to fashion it. i was not shocked by this because for 20 years you've been talking to people, let's talk on backgrounds, what can i use, you have negotiations. seems like it's becoming more and more formalized and more control in the hands of those that reporters want on the record. >> i think it's gotten worse in that regard. when you go back with the quotes, they want to massage it more than they used to. >> take out anything interesting -- >> right. then the reporter says it's a bland article. that's why you're seeing more journalists saying we're not going to do that anymore. >> it's hard to see what journalist do if others are willing to play the game, the source use them instead of you. >> and briefly, that is part of the problem which is if you just say -- if you say no, then you find out you don't have quotes from senior romney or white house or obama officials but your competitor does. >> right. i'm not sure it's gotten worse. people have massaged sources probably since there were sources. i think it's akin to the problem we were talking about last time with the problem of wanting to get it out first even if you're not right. you the to get an exclusive even if it's biased. i think that sometimes we have to rely on actual writing to make an article interesting and not on quotes. that m be difficult for some people. it's really the only way you'll get anywhere if you want to be completely unbiased. >> people probably doing it since the stories were written in hire graphics on the cave wall. thank you very much for stopping by this morning. next, yahoo!'s new boss is a young woman. imagine that. uh, i'm in a timeout because apparently riding the dog like it's a small horse is frowned upon in this establishment! luckily though, ya know, i conceal this bad boy underneath my blanket just so i can get on e-trade. check my investment portfolio, research stocks... wait, why are you taking... oh, i see...solitary. just a man and his thoughts. and a smartphone... with an e-trade app. ♪ nobody knows... [ male announcer ] e-trade. investing unleashed. constipated? phillips' caplets use magnesium, an ingredient that works more naturally with your colon than stimulant laxatives, for effective relief of constipation without cramps. thanks. good morning, students. today we're gonna continue... thanks. energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy development comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing generations of cleaner-burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self-contained well systems. and, using state-of-the-art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment. we're america's natural gas. marissa mayer, a top google executive, certainly didn't shy from the media spotlight as she said in march she believed in equal rights for women but added this -- >> i don't think that i would consider myself a feminist. i don't, i think, have sort of the -- the militant drive and sort of the chip on the shoulder that sometimes comes with that. >> mayer became huge news when she was tapped for one of the top jobs in silicon valley. >> former google executive one was named executive at yahoo!. at 37 she's the youngest chief executive of a fortune 500 country. she announced on twitter she's going to be a first-time mommy. >> marisa's a woman who is smart and feminine, let's hope she succeeds. >> i spoke in our ode studio to two women who have risen in the media ranks. joining us now in new york is cara swisher, editor of "all things digital." here in washington, lauren ashburn, founder and editor-in-chief of dailydownload web site, where i'm a contributor, and former editor of "usa today." marissa mayer, who you know well, has already gotten 100 times the coverage of all four ceos who proceeded her combined. how much has to do with being a young woman? >> probably a lot. first of all, let's get off the bat, she's a very competent executive. she's very experienced. she's been work -- even though she's quite young, i think 37, she's been working at google for a long time, since the beginning. she -- since 20. she has tech jobs, she's got stanford degrees out the ying yang. >> the media seem to love her. >> she's done a good job of that. she spent a lot of time doing press, during her career at google, and has become sort of the -- she's made herself the symbol of google. so if people know her already, people in the national press because she's the one that shows up for magazine shoots and -- >> right. >> gives interviews. she talks about her personal life a lot. most google executives aren't like that. larry page hardly comes out of the cave. >> i have noticed that. let me turn to lauren ashburn. the second wave of stories after she was appointed is, oh, my god, she's pregnant. >> so what? i don't could the fascination -- i don't understand the fascination with women who are pregnant. when i started my career, my big promotion came when i was eight-months pregnant with my daughter. so what? the big thing that shy she needs to worry about is how she's going to turn the company around and how she's going to manage people underneath her who have been passed over and are going for her throat. >> speaking of pregnancy, kara, you wrote on your web site piece about how the yahoo! board didn't have a problem her being hired despite her pregnancy. you got flack on line for your last part where you said you had tried to reach her and she didn't return your messages. >> right. >> and in an apparent and vain attempt to show me what's what, and good luck with that, she did confirm her pregnancy to "fortune." what made you write that? >> you know, i -- you know, my style on the blog. i have a long relationship with yahoo!. they don't like to talk to me because i do break a lot of stories on them. so they're continuing -- it wasn't referencing her pregnancy. it was referencing yahoo!'s p.r. things, where they try to keep information away or don't call me back and stuff. so it didn't have to do with the pregnancy at all. i did call them -- his given them about because i thought it was a sensitive issue, had given them about five hours. then the "fortune" piece appeared where she talked on the record. so, you know, they do stuff like that. it's a silly insider thing. i -- i do it all the time in yahoo! stories, make snide comments to ceos, it's meant to be funny and works in a blog, probably not anywhere else. >> isn't there a danger, lauren, i think of the way the media treated carly fiorina or -- when things don't turn around in six months or work miracles, she bears -- the stories are personal about how she has failed? >> well, to the first part of this, the personal stories, she's putting that out there. so i think that if she's putting her personal life out there, if that's going to be the way that the media's going to go, okay. i don't agree with. i think that it's a huge mistake for people to be putting a woman in a position of power. and then to be talking it her hair and her pregnancy. and it just sends such a bad message. and the media is responsible. >> so is there -- let me be blunt -- >> can i interject? >> go ahead. >> she does this. it's not the media. if you go back, marissa mayer has done interviews about cupcakes and her fashion specials, and her parties, and all kinds of thing. over the years, she does talk to the media rather actively. and talks a lot about her personal life. >> kara -- >> she can, but it's not the media's fault that she wants to give these interviews -- >> i think it's the media's fault for making her career and the fact that she has become this very powerful woman in a tech field, making her career all about what's going to happen with her pregnancy and her baby and -- >> they didn't. that's not true. everyone was talking about her competence as an executive. whether she could create product innovation. it was one single story out of 100 -- >> no, i saw that on different media. she's 37, she's young. she's pregnant. how's she going to balance it? something that never a -- a man would never happen -- >> because there's 100 men and one women. that's one of the issues, you have four or five women in technology. meg whitman, cheryl sandberg and now marissa -- >> but it happens to women in other media professions. i'm saying she's not the only woman this happens to. >> of course not. what's something -- i think the pregnancy thing is interesting in light that this is a massive turnaround that has to happen. this -- this is a job that is a 24/7 job -- >> she can do that pgnant and she can do that with -- >> absolutely. no one said she couldn't do it pregnant. i think what people are saying is this is a hard job and she's pregnant, too. and believe me, i don't know if you have children, but pregnancy is hard -- >> i have three. >> i have two. it is very hard. >> what about the juggling thing? >> i did come back to work after only five weeks -- >> me, too. >> right after. i remember walking the halls going, whoa. >> i just want to jump in for a second. that, is you know, sure, marissa mayer has given interviews and talked about her personal life. then, you know, she has put herself in the spotlight. that's okay. it's a strategy. but i can't help but notice that her appointment made the front page of "the new york times." ross levenson, who had been the interim ceo, worked at yahoo! for a while, had he gotten the job i don't think it would have been on the front page. the previous ceos didn't make the front page of "the new york times." that says we're fascinated by a young woman. >> we're fascinated by women who can make it to the top despite hillary clinton being secretary of state, despite all of the women that kara rattled off, there is a glass ceiling. and any time anyone like her breaks it, the news is still going to be it women. we haven't had a woman president yet. and that -- any woman who is, you know, playing in that game is -- is fair game. >> and kara, you wrote a substantive story about all the challenges she faces in turning around the struggling outfit that is yahoo!. but you -- >> i didn't mention her age or her -- her nice outfits. >> but you gave her -- you gave her some fashion advice. >> oh, that's because -- because all -- every ceo that joins yahoo! goes on and on about purple, and i'm tired of it. that's all. they just -- like i bleed purple, i wear purple. carol bart showed up in purple. i think scott thompson had purple. i make a purple joke every time -- the thing is, they appoint a new yahoo! ceo every time the seasons change. >> she needs fall colors, brunt or plaid. >> i'm out of -- out of my depth here. >> but the point of the purple was is that it's not the old yahoo!. they need a new yahoo! and go back to the yahoo! yell and purple. that was the point. not fashion advice. i shouldn't give fashion aride is to anybody. >> i need a short answer, will we get to the point where a pregnant woman ceo is not going to be news in and of itself? >> i hope so. i don't know if i'll see it in my lifetime. i think it will be a while. >> that was a lively conversation. thank you very much for joining us. after the break, my two cents on george zimmerman's bizarre strategy of trying to win an acquittal in the trayvon case on television. to prove how great the fit is even under a fantastic dress. the best protection now looks, fits and feels just like underwear. we invite you to get a free sample and try one on too. so homuch do we owe you? that'll be $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. ♪ not many people charged with murder pop up in television interviews. but george zimmerman is an exception. he sat down this week and while the fox news host was sympathetic and has unabashedly taken zimmerman's side in the trayvon martin case, he asked many of the questions that needed to be asked. that wasn't enough for zimmerman. he wanted to talk to barbara walters. on "the view," he explained negotiations with zimmerman lawyer. >> if i came down to orlando, george zimmerman, we all know who he is, everybody knows, right, would indeed do an interview with me. >> when walters and her crew arrived and zimmerman walked in, it was no go. >> and then said he would doonan interview. >> oh. >> no matter what we said. but he would if there were one condition -- it was a condition that being a member of abc news i was unable to grant. >> the problem -- he reportedly wanted abc to put him up in a hotel for an extended period of time. the next day on "the view," came this strange moment -- >> if mr. zimmerman could not do the interview -- and in my ear, my little earpiece, i'm telling you the gentleman called, yes? he just called and mr. zimmerman, if you could n do the interview yesterday, i don't think we should do it -- a quick one today. >> maybe barbara walters was showing her pique at having flown to florida and returned empty-handed but i'm glad she didn't cave in. zimmerman reneged by essentially demanding money it would have been unethical for to be pay. wallers this decided a quick phone conversation was a poor substitute. the man who shot trayvon martin had the temerity to say it was god's plan seems intent on winning his case in the media. next, we'll have a live report from aurora, colorado. ♪ [ female announcer ] for everything your face has to face. face it with puffs facial tissues. unlike the leading regular tissue, puffs has soft, air-fluffed pillows for 40% more cushiony thickness. so you can always put your best face forward. face every day with puffs softness. so you can always put your best face forward. brave knights! as you can clearly see from this attractive graph that our sales have increased by... sorry, my liege. honestly. our sales have increased by 20%. what is this mystical device i see before me? it's an ultrabook. he signed the purchase order. with an ultrabook, everything else seems old fashioned. introducing the ultra sleek, ultra responsive ultrabook. a whole new class of computers powered by intel. turning now to the colorado massacre. we'll go to aurora, colorado. joined by correspondent jim spellman. jim, is it difficult emotionally to parachute into a scene of a tragedy like this? and talk to people with very raw feelings, they've lost loved ones or survived the shooting themselves? >> reporter: it sure is. i mean, i think you have to kind of put on your professional hat and just be sure you're doing the next thing and not getting caught up in that emotion while remaining aware of it. i live here in denver, howie. so this is -- this is kind of my turf. i travel on these streets. this hospital is a place i've been before. you have to kind of put that out of your head. i'll set the scene a little bit for where you go if you want to check it out. this is james holmes' apartment. right here is where everybody is -- where the authorities were trying to get in and dismantle all these bombs. so when you're right in the thick of it, next to -- >> could you have the camera guy swing around and show us, are there other cameras this? has this become a media encampment? >> sure. sure, you see a couple of network crews here. satellite trucks. this is the first time we've been able to get this close. so people are just starting to kind of move themselves up from the farther away position that we had to be for the last few days. >> that leads me to this question. every news organization obviously wants to be there. but the combined numbers when there is this kind of invasion, is that -- resented at all by a relatively small town trying to cope with the tragedy? do you have to tread lightly? >> reporter: yeah. you know, so for -- i've seen situations where that's been the case. so far, i haven't had any sense of sort of hostility from people. i think one of the main thing, one of the locations is a shopping mall. everybody's in a mall that's been closed. not in the middle of everybody's streets. so far here, everybody's as curious about what's going on as people in the rest of the country. so i haven't detected it here. definitely, on some other stories i've been on, though, where people just feel like you're invading their privacy. i think we also have to stay, you know, aware of that. you're going to end up speaking to loved ones who lost somebody or you might speak to somebody who -- i spoke with a man who still had buckshot in his arm. obviously going to be highly charged situations. you have to tread carefully. >> highly charged, difficult story to cover. and you've been working overtime, around the clock. thank you very much for joining us this morning. next on "reliable sources," how ordinary folks broke news about the movie theater shooting. hey america, even though they don't need one, wes, clay and demarcus tried on the new depend real fit briefs for charity to prove how great the fit is even while playing pro football. the best protection now looks, fits and feels just like underwear. get a free sample and try one on for yourself. when a major news event erupt we often think of twitter. but some details of the movie massacre in colorado emerged first reddit, r-e-d-d-i-t, a cluttered somewhat geeky offering on the home page. joining us to talk about the role of social media is "washington post" reporter paul fari. welcome. what is it about reddit that made it an ideal forum for such a fast-moving story? >> the crowd source aspects of it. there's lots of people who are involved in reddit. lots of people posting. and some of those people are actual eyewitnesses -- >> they're -- they're almost acting as journalists in this situation. >> that's exactly what they are, citizen journalists with all the flaws of citizen journalists. nevertheless, if you're an eyewitness and are there, you have a great advantage over a professional who can't be there. >> since i mention eyewitnesses, we're going to take the graphics out of order. if we can get graphic number two here. want to put a graphic by screen name the murder-ator -- wrong one. can we get the other graphic, please? that is not the guy. can we get the other graphic, please? i'll read it while we scramble around for that. the murder-ator writes, "i am one writes, i'm one of the 50 wounded in the aurora theater shooting. here are a few photos of my very lucky but nonetheless terrifying brush with death. he tweets, he posted himself. >> yes, and that's far more riveting, far more vivid and far more real than any journalist can possibly match and this person apparently, we don't really know, but apparently was there at time of the shooting. >> right, we have no way of verifying it. now to the first graphic, a series of posts on reddit by a guy with a screen name hard to pronounce, morgan jones, we flashed his picture there earlier. we'll show you again in a minute. he writes at 1:27 a.m., bring as much crime scene tape as you can. 1:35, shooter wearinging green cameo pants. 1:37, bomb squad is there, bringing in k-9 units, possible other bombs. that is not true. he was tapping into a police scanner and other media reports. >> he was live blogging this episode. but that shows you all of the flaws of this forum as well. a lot of stuff he was putting up there was absolutely inaccurate. and it was real time, yes, and it was raw, and it was on the spot, but it was inaccurate in many cases. that's the problem of this kind of form of journalism. >> when people read something on reddit or twitter in this real time situation, some tragedy that just happened, hurricane, shooting, you name it, they have to take it with a grain of salt, even if the information can be very valuable but it hasn't been vetted by -- the way it would be, not in every case by news organizations, but there hasn't gone through some editorial process. >> this is the first rougher draft of history. journalists will come in, refine it and historians will refine it even farther. >> hard for newspapers to compete with this sort of instant reaction by citizens and washington post closed its bureaus around the country, it had to put people on planes to get to the denver area to do the story. >> that's right. but, again, what the mainstream media provides in this ecosystem is the notion that we will vet the information, we will tell you what's right and what's wrong, we won't print rumors, we won't tell you things we know to be the result of the heat of the moment. that's our value. >> except we also make mistakes. >> we also make mistakes. we make fewer of them. >> and so this is a website that has 37 million unique users, now owned by conde nast. i think because of the attention of the incident, a lot of people will check out reddit, particularly when something is unfolding. >> i think it is a valuable part of the media ecosystem. >> you don't feel like your job is threatened now? >> no, it is a supplement to what you and i do. >> we can rely on it with appropriate caveats and maybe the guy who said he was an eyewitness was, though he posted the pictures, i haven't heard anything to contradict that. >> we can go and find this guy and talk to him. >> making our job easier as well. paul, thank you very much for sharing that with us this morning. still to come, david gergen's not so full disclosure, the networks get pumped and a blogger accuses a journalist of romancing a senator. the media monitor straight ahead. eliminate gas from my budget. i don't spend money on gasoline. it's been 4,000 miles since my last trip to the gas station. it's pretty great. i get a bunch of kids waving at me... giving me the thumbs up. it's always a gratifying experience. it makes me feel good about my car. i absolutely love my chevy volt. ♪ by what's getting done. measure commitment i absolutely love my chevy volt. the twenty billion dollars bp committed has helped fund economic and environmental recovery. long-term, bp's made a five hundred million dollar commitment to support scientists studying the environment. and the gulf is open for business - the beaches are beautiful, the seafood is delicious. last year, many areas even reported record tourism seasons. the progress continues... but that doesn't mean our job is done. we're still committed to seeing this through. constipated? phillips' caplets use magnesium, an ingredient that works more naturally with your colon than stimulant laxatives, for effective relief of constipation without cramps. thanks. good morning, students. today we're gonna continue... thanks. this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. i have to know the weather patterns. i upgraded to the new sprint direct connect. so i can get three times the coverage. 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[ chirp ] time now for the media monitor, our weekly look at the hits and errors in the news business. david gergen has spoken on a number of occasions about mitt romney and bain capital, which are very much in the news. sometimes gergen mentioned he has ties to the company, and sometimes he hasn't. he offered a more complete explanation on the air last week. >> i should you tell you, anderson, i've had not only personal relationships, started out with bain capital folks partners being great philanthropist here in boston and i've given a couple of paid speeches for them and part of a company that was sold to bain capital, on the board of a company, we thought they did a trask j terrific job. i did realize some financial gain from that. having said all that, knowing what i know about the bain capital partnership, i think they're people of real integrity. >> that is a real significant relationship and gergen should have never talked about bain without saying he was part of the company. the new york times presented ryan holiday as a collector of vinyl records. on abc he was a long suffering insomniac. on cbs he was a guy with an embarrassing story about his office. well, ryan holiday wasn't any of those things. he's a scam artist, a liar to be precise as forbes magazine revealed. holiday, an executive of american apparel, pumped the news organizations just to show he could do it. the media outlets reached to him through a service that connects them with sources. he has written a book call eed "trust me, i'm lying." a conservative blogger thought he had the goods on connie schultz. he sent a note saying we have found numerous photos of you with senator chirad brown and you appear to be hugging him in one. she wasn't bashful about replying. she said, he's really cute and he's my husband. she's not naming the blogger because she doesn't want to be a bully. she wants him to pick better company and do better journalist, kind of refreshing when someone refuses to get down in the mud. that's it for this edition of "reliable sources." i'm howard kurtz. if you miss a program, you can go to