Transcripts For CNNW Reliable Sources 20140713

Should be hooked up it a lie detector. Our interview with josh earnest. Being press secretary is tough at any time. Its especially tough right now. This may be the low point of the obama presidency. Hes facing an Immigration Crisis on the border and a threat of a lawsuit from the gop. Go jo josh earnest, hes having to deal with all of it. Imagine your first few weeks, kind of intimidating, right . Now imagine that literally the whole world is watching. Josh, thanks for joining me. Thanks for having me. I thought it would be fun to change it up to you and have you sit out where the reporters sit. Its nice to be seated as opposed to standing up. I guess it is. Lets start with the big story of the week. Humanitarian crisis on the border. What we heard all week was a drum beat about photo ops, symbols. So much of the presidency is symbols. Why not have him go to the border even if its a symbol. Thats a good question. Its important for people to understand what the president s priority is. In this situation the president s priority was on solving the problem. Weve talked through what hes trying to do to solve this. Hes asked for resources from congress. Prior to that the president made some unilateral decisions about moving it from the interior to the border. The president has asked for congress to provide Greater Authority to the secretary of Homeland Security to more efficiently implement the law. We saw Greater Authority to crack down on the trafficking groups that are responsible for so much of this situation that were seeing there. Those are all policybased solutions to a difficult problem. Those dont lend themselves to sexy pictures. The president s putting the policy solution first even though hes being criticized over photo ops. Thats leadership. The president does think a lot about photo ops, i would think. Hes been traveling around the country to spend time with regular people. Those are photo ops. Any time the president and the symbol goes, that sends a message. You turn on the tv and you hear all of the chatter about photo ops. Do you think the press is featuring on the small thing versus the important thing . I want to be the media critic in chief. Theres a responsibility for the news media to try to make sense of a really complicated, fastmoving dynamic environment, and thats particularly true when youre talking about a story like this. Look, i think the president made exactly the right decision. Hes focused on results. Sometimes the media environment doesnt reward somebody whos willing to absorb a little criticism and not Pay Attention to the optics or pay less attention to the optics. Theres always some attention to the optics. Theres always some attention to the optics. Look, particularly a News Organization like cnn, television is a visual medium. Your stock in trade is going to be the optics. I understand theres value in paying attention to that. The responsibility of the leaders of the country is understanding how to use the optics to solve problems. The other side is theyre using photo ops to avoid having to deal with tough problems. You talk about tough issues. Do you feel this is the lowest point in the Obama Administration . I dont feel that. One person when i asked for questions from twitter for this interview, one person asked, what were you thinking by taking on this job at this moment . Yeah. Yeah. Look, it is its its a really interesting time to take on this job. What were you thinking . I was thinking about what a tremendous opportunity it would be to stand up at that podium on a daily basis and fight for something that i really believe in, and that is a president who has the right priorities for this country. Hes somebody who believes passionately in the American Government being a force for good in the world but he also believes passionately using the influence he has in washington d. C. To fight for middle class families that i grew up . Its quite a fight. How many days have you stood up there having dreaded doing it so far . None so far. Each time ive looked forward to the opportunity. It doesnt mean there havent been touch questions and that there arent questions that i worry about. It is a really interesting symbol of our democracy for somebody who works here at the white house to walk out here every day that the president is in town and say, ask me whatever question youve got. Let me know. By the way, i bring it up. Should we keep televising this . If you think its good for your ratings, you should do it. If you decide at some point its not, you shouldnt. Its not for me to judge. I think that adding a Television Camera definitely changes the dynamic but i dont be think it would be appropriate for me to say what you can or cant film. Your first briefing in june was described as testing. I thought, wait, thats the way its supposed to be. Its too adversarial now. Do you believe that . Its a battle and not an exchange of information. Right. I would say there is builtin tension in the relationship. If theres ever a day when the White House Press core sits back and says, were getting all the information we need from the white house, everybody in the press core wont be doing their jobs. The question for me is does that tension help you get answers . Does it help people get a better understanding into whats happening here in the white house or does it get in the way . Sometimes i do think it gets in the way. Theres a premium based on what gets the answers. Some would say it may be more adversarial because you are all withholding more than ever. Have you seen this letter from the society of professional journalists . 40 press groups all sayings the president should be more transparent. Look, i think the president s record of transparency stands up to any of the record of his predecessor. You did see the letter and hear from the groups . I did. You didnt have legitimate concerns . Again, theyre all journalists. The day that they sort of sit back and say, we dont need to write a letter, the white house is telling us everything theyre supposed to, is the day theyre no longer doing their job. They say many federal agencies are imposing terrible restrictions on freedom of the press. Is there anything you can do to stop that, improve the flow of information . I am definitely committed and have a responsibility to try too help the president live up to his commitment to be the most transparent president in history. If you look at some of the steps im surprised you say that. Most transparent president in history. He has been criticized saying that given the prosecutions of whistle blowers and other steps. You will still stick by that . Absolutely. If you look at the president s record of releasing wage records. This Administration Releases it voluntarily on the internet on a quarterly basis. Reporters for years clamored to get access to fundraisers that president s hosted or attended that were hosted in private homes. Reporters now have access to those when this president goes to a private home. This week. There are a number of steps weve taken. I notice this week the between two ferns interview was nominated for an emmy. Its an honor being nominated. Of course. We certainly have our fingers crossed. That was a tremendous opportunity that the president took to deliver a message. Even though it was criticized theres evidence that it worked for its purposes. It got more traffic to the obama care website. It got as much traffic to the obama care website as any other online project that we were engaged in. It was a really powerful thing. Where else might we see him go . Were always looking for new ideas. Some can be online. Maybe theres a great print idea out there that we havent come up with yet. Were going to be looking for over the course of the next two and a half years to push the envelope and put the president in unique formats where he can connect with people in a different way. Lets talk about you and your media habits. What newspapers do you read every day . I well, i benefit from two things. An ipad. Thats transformed the way that a lot of people get the printed product. New york times, washington post, wall street journal . Ap has a really good app, too, at the risk of plugging them. The other thing i bet fit from is we have an internal service where there is a staffer that starts sending emails before 7 00 a. M. With an individual news clip. So i benefit a lot from reading through my email. Television . What network do you go to first . First probably espn. But if its easy answer. That is an easy answer. If its for work i definitely spend some time on cnn. Ive found them to be a pretty good barometer of what a lot of people in this room are going to be interested in on a daily basis. You must turn on fox and msnbc . Yes. There is a function where we can watch four stations at the same time so we can pull up do the broadcast networks still matter . Absolutely they do, in a different way than they used to. Theres still a tremendous audience. There are very serious were sitting in two of their seats. What about the web . Are there any particular websites that are most important in terms of the news . Politico has done a lot to really transform the way that the news is reported here in washington so that is an outlet that i know a lot of reporters go to for news and its certainly one that i look for, too. They style themselves as the espn of politics. Even though we think of this as being so adversarial, youre describing a way you can help the press. Look, my first responsibility is to be an advocate for the president , theres no doubt about that, but i am serving the president really well if im doing a good job of serving the press core. Sometimes that means helping them, sometimes that means being an advocate internally getting them access to things. Its a unique role. The other thing i like about the white house, through that door reporters have an opportunity to wander through press offices. Something viewers dont realize . Right behind that wall is where my old office used to be. That meant that i was often the stop of first resort for a lot of reporters if they were desperate for a piece of information, if they were frustrated with the white house. If they needed help on a story, i was the first door that they came to. That allowed me to develop important, strong relationships in working with reporters and thats something you cant do over the phone or by email. By doing it face to face it has been an interesting thing. Something oldfashioned about the white house but it serves the White House Well in the 21st century fast moving viern zblmt thank you for taking my questions. Thanks for coming, brian. Nice to see you. Now were back here in the studio. I would love to talk to mr. Earnest in a year to see how hes feeling. Coming up on reliable sources. There is a double standard in the media. Well talk about why and how its back in the news right after this. To fuel economy. To quality. Todays chevrolet has it all. And great news the chevy 72 hour sale has just been extended. Youll get 0 apr for 72 months. Plus no Monthly Payments for the rest of the summer. 0 apr for 72 months plus no Monthly Payments for the rest of the summer. The chevy 72 hour sale ends monday. Find new roads at your local chevy dealer. Really. So our business can be on at ts network for 175 dollars a month . Yup. All five of you for 175. Our clients need a lot of attention. Theres unlimited talk and text. Were working deals all day. You get 10 gigabytes of data to share. What about expansion potential . Add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. Low dues. Great terms. Lets close. Introducing at t mobile share value plans. With our bestever pricing for business. Welcome back to reliable sources. I want to turn now to women and television, and more specifically women on television, anchor women, and how they dress. Check out this headline from the Huffington Post this week. This is the kind of bs that women in television have to deal with. The Huffington Post was talking about a morning show war over in brittain where executives from one network were apparently so anxious to hike up the ratings they suggested the anchor woman should hike up her skirts. The coverage of that controversy had me pondering how much change there has been in this country in the Way Television anchor women have changed their dress. Were trying to see if there is a dress code. It sure seems like theres an arms race. Almost no one wears dresses with sleeves anymore. Let me start with fox news. The new program called outnumbered shows four women and one man. When we looked elsewhere on this network, msnbc, cbs, abc, we saw sleeveless dresses and shorter skirts than there used to be. Go back 20, 30 years you see a big difference s. This a fashion choice. What kind of pressures do female journalists feel to look a certain way on the air. It actually came up on wabc, new yorks abc affiliate on friday morning. Watch this. Our little micro climate in here is like a refrigerator. It is. Our micro climate. Our macro climate is different. Should we tell should we reveal how all the ladies here wear sleeveless outfits when its only 37 degrees in this studio . Good question. I have a blanket or cardigan. Shivering when were off camera. I have the two perfect guests to discuss this issue. Two generations of women in television news. Karen is a former Network Anchor are we perfect because were wearing sleeveless . Thats the Perfect Place to start. We didnt know this ahead of time, by the way. I one be derd because you were at cnn for many years, how have you seen the attention to female anchor outfits change . When i was a local News Reporter and anchor in atlanta, i wore a blazer that had a pocket that said action news 5. Weve come a long way. Gray blazer, very attractive. Takes the guesswork out of choosing your outfit. I think what happened in london is outrageous. Think about it, back then people were openly discriminating against women. Youve brought some notes with you, all of the Different Things you have been told on how to dress over the years. When you called and said, you know, do you want to come join us to talk about this, i laughed. I started thinking. I dont think its changed that much. Obviously we have come far in terms of assignments. It was unheard of back in the day twhat you would have a femae war correspondcorrespondent. I think attention to womens appearance, thats not just news, thats sort of society. We can take it with a grain of salt or we can get very insecure about it, but i laughed over the years. People said i should buy a wig, which im thinking i should have. My hair was too thin for television. They didnt like that. I was told dont wear bare arms. Michelle obama changed that. Dont wear taupe. Dye your hair blond. Wear your skirts shorter. Wear your skirts wear longer. They said get botox. When the sun is on you you look angry. Nobody likes angry women on television. Its harder. Youre trying as a woman to show that you know as much and that you deserve to be informing people about whats going on and then you have to worry about lip gloss and eyelashes and high heels and all of that stuff on top of it. I think its tough because news is at the intersection of television. If youre doing news on television, youre at the intersection of what is in large part an entertainment media. The ven diagram. Generallism and television and theres a lot in the middle. Exactly. Youre sitting right there in the middle of it. There are plenty of guys doing the news. There are plenty more anchors like brian stelter. The wind i think kieryn is right. We are judged by a different standard because society has a different standard for women. I believe we cant i think its crazy to get so focused on this because we have come vi a very long way. There are women doing serious news reporting. Theyre covering wars, theyre covering the state department. Theyre not only covering the white house. Theyre putting themselves at risk, and i think its i think we make too much if we sit and worry too much about how women look. I think, yes, theyre going to be executives in News Organizations who worry about it, but i think women have to take a deep breath and think, what am i doing here . Am i here to be a reporter, to gather the news, to make sure it gets out and do the best job i can. If thats what youre trying to do, thats what ultimately is going to matter. Do you ever look at women in television, someone on a local broadcast or something and think, my god, what are they wearing . Of course. Everyone does that. But its for guys, too. What i laugh at. What do you mean its for guys too . The only real feedback ive gotten was i wore glasses. Then a cnn executive said i like you better without glasses. Thats the only kind of feedback ive had to face so to speak. I thought it was interesting when Anderson Cooper was covering the aftermath in haiti. One of the articles was Anderson Cooper wore a black tshirt. What else is he going to wear . You have to take it with a grain of salt like judy said. You have to say i have enough confidence in myself and what im saying is relevant and hopefully informative. There is an element of attractiveness you have to have, by that i dont mean beauty, i mean you have to have either an authenticity about you or a relatebility so that i mean, its tv. Its tv news. If the ratings arent good, meaning people arent attracted to you they use the term attract viewers. If people arent attracted to your persona, your person whether it has to do with looks or how you talk or what you say, then where are we. There is a difference about outlets. Judy, at pbs, is it a luxury to not have to tli about ratings every 15 minutes . Clearly we want an audience. Gwen and i are very focused on putting on the very best program we can every night and feel very blessed to be the first two women anchoring a national newscast. No, its not the same as commercial pressure where every morning theres a lot of focus on the part of executives what were the ratings, every 15 minutes, every five minutes the night before. That doesnt mean we dont care about an audience. We do. Its the content that matters. I would argue that its the content on commercial television. Ultimately people will come back to you if youre doing a good job, getting the story right, if you did a good interview, if you had a Good Exchange with somebody you were talking to and you shone some light on the story. Whether youre covering a hurricane or an election or an Immigration Crisis right now. What matters is the story. You know, i have long believed that theres too much focus on how we look. Its inevitably part of the job because its television. Its a story when hoda and kathy go, were not wearing makeup or when Robin Roberts took her wig off. There was a huge amount of emphasis put on looks. I dont necessarily think its a horrible thing but its definitely trying. Let me go back to what youve heard about feedback wise. Can you tell me what thats been like in a newsroom in the past . Sure. How much time do you have . I remember even when i was younger, i was 22 when i was an anchor at the coveted nbc affiliate in eerie, pennsylvania, which was a great news town. They wanted me he to look older. I had shoulder pads out here and my hair was poofed out. I show pictures for fun. That is not you. But there was for me the problem was they felt because i was so young even though they knew i was smart and i knew what i was talking about that i appeared to be too young. When you were at fox news was there more of a focus on your looks than there was at other places . Yeah. One of my favorite quotes ever. I cant i just realized i cant say it. The joke was we should all buy stock in mac lip gloss because we go through it. We used to call the hair and makeup studio, we used to ka you will it the magic shop. Wed drag ourselves in at 2 00 in the morning and come out looking completely different. At cnn i go into makeup and they give me 1,000 milligrams of confidence. I get to sit next to you guys and get makeup and get air brushed. Coming up here on reliable sources were going to be talking about one particular woman who were all used to seeing on camera. Thats Hillary Clinton. Who is the subject of two new books, one by herself and one most definitely not. One that is filled with sensational and frankly very hard to believe claims. Were going to dissect it with someone whos read it and written about it right after this. Heyre about 10 times softr and may have surface pores where bacteria can multiply. Polident kills 99. 99 of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains. Thats why i recommend polident. [ male announcer ] cleaner, fresher, brighter every day. Im jeff and i have copd. Im lisa and i have copd, but i dont want my breathing problems to get in the way of hosting my book club. Thats why i asked my doctor about breo. Oncedaily breo ellipta helps increase airflow from the lungs for a full 24 hours. 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The fastest printer. The fastest lunch. Turkey club. The fastest pencil sharpener. The fastest elevator. The fastest speed dial. The Fastest Office plant. So why wouldnt i choose the fastest wifi . I would. Switch to comcast Business Internet and get the fastest wifi included. Comcast business. Built for business. Take a look at the New York Times hard cover nonfiction best seller list. Everybody in the publishing world studies this list. And number two this week is Hillary Clintons memoir hard choices. Now scroll up. Look at whats at number one. Another one about the clintons, blood feud by edward klein. President obama and the clintons hate each other. To call it poorly sourced is a compliment. A lot of the book passages honestly sound too crazy to be true. Like when klein claims that one of Hillary Clintons arguments turned physical with her jabbing him in the chest. Normally we wouldnt be repeating these kinds of allegations, not when theres no evidence for them and lots of evidence against them. Were only talking about it on reliable sources on a book thats selling like hot cakes. Let me bring in someone who has read it and written about it. David sweigel. Tell me what blood feud is all about. Blood feud is a version of the last couple of years between the clintons and the obamas. This is kind of the latest of the series of ed klein books. Youve called then clinton hate books . Clinton fan if i can shin. There are people that resemble the clintons and its great detail that ed klein could not have seen. In a room where no one else is present and will claim that he has around 200 sources he claims in spiral notebooks under deep cover that swore to him up and down that this all happened. Most of the press has avoided detailing whats in the book because most of the press doesnt believe a lot of this stuff. Is that the right decision . To basically ignore it even though its number one on the best seller list. There is. What is the point of rereporting something which would be the response. If theres a change from game changers, a lot of great books use Anonymous Sources. In this it will be in a room that contained the president and the white and the president and valerie jarrett. We know that ed klein did not get them for the book. He would say so. Of course. If you cant verify it in any ore way, if the guy has a record of making stuff up, its an assumption you have to go with. The New York Times said, quote, i dont make this stuff up. The quotes come from sources that were present when the statements were made or who were told about the statements shortly after they were made. Let me read what i thought was an amazing statement. Lets strap ed klein to a polygraph machine and let the needle do the talking. They feel like theyve bested ed klein before. This time Hillary Clintons camps have pointed to the past and have dismissed the guy which indicates, one, they feel they have moved on from this. Two, they dont mind when the opposition to Hillary Clinton is seen as ludicrous. The clintons have been at their best. They may think it helps them. One more thing we should point out, hard choices has sold more copies. The clinton camp, rather, their allies, have been aggressive about saying hard choices has been a hit. So there has been that tension recently. Lets get to the issue of why a book like this does sell so well, why it does hit number one on the times best seller list. What is it about a book like this that you think is so attractive to some conservatives . It feels true. Some of the reviewing in the conservative media, not a lot, clinton is not taken that seriously, there is a sense that the clintons are probably like this, the obamas are probably like this. They know the liberal media, most of the media thats not outwardly conservative, they assume theyre lying and covering for the guy. So if its believable, they cover for him on benghazi, believable they cover for him on the irs, its believable they cover this up. I would not ascribe that to the mainstream but thats enough to sell the books. Do you worry that by dismissing the book, talking about it but dismissing it, gives the book more publicity, more weight . This was a debate in one of cnns editorial meetings about this book. Should we be talking about it at all . Theres a lot of stuff that bubbles up from the fringe, if you dont cover it it is going to get covered because of the way media has been established. Media doesnt have that role in determining what people get to talk about. Dave, thanks for joining me. Thank you. Let me know what you think of this issue. Send me a tweet or facebook message, my name is brian stelter. Ill be responding right after the show. Coming up on reliable sources, red news and blue news. The different views on the crisis on the border you might get depending on what channel you turn on. Ill show you exactly what i mean right after this. For 175 dollars a month . Yup. All five of you for 175. Our clients need a lot of attention. Theres unlimited talk and text. Were working deals all day. You get 10 gigabytes of data to share. What about expansion potential . Add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. Low dues. Great terms. Lets close. Introducing at t mobile share value plans. With our bestever pricing for business. At every ford dealership, youll find the works its a complete checkup of the services your vehicle needs. So prepare your car for any road trip by taking it to an expert ford technician. Because no matter your destination good maintenance helps you save at the pump. Get our multipoint inspection with a Synthetic Blend Oil change, tire rotation, Brake Inspection and more for 29. 95 or less. Get a complete vehicle checkup only at your ford dealer. train horn vo wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. Norfolk southern. One line, infinite possibilities. If your denture moves, it can irritate your gums. Try fixodent plus gum care. It helps stop denture movement and prevents gum irritation. Fixodent. And forget it. Get right to red news blue news. How the media portrays stories in ways that will make your head spin. This week it is immigration. Such a contentious issue, and such an emotional one. If youve watched a lot of the coverage, youve noticed a lot of tugging at the heart strings. Lets start with blue news, two Congressional Democrats on msnbc. We have to remember that these are human beings and that these are kids and show the compassion that we should for that. Visuals are powerful. People love children as much as there may be concern and a lot of emotions, i can tell you that your heart wrenches when you see the children. The contrast could not be more vivid between those sound bites and these red news sound bites im about to show you. Check these out. These are two fox news commentators from earlier this week. The federal government is covering up the extent of the health crisis. They say kids have skab bees. They also say they have chicken position and an all out epidemic of lies. Its so severe they say the bugs can be seen crawling down the faces of the children. The ms 13 gang members are minors and now were also seeing these dangerous people bringing drugs into the country who arent being watched by border patrol. Keep what they said in mind. This is a clip from fox news. I noticed on hannitys show. Where do you think she heard about the lice. Theyre coming with lice, skab bees, leprosy. Theyre going to give it to my little brother . I dont think so. You can see the feedback loop there between what news outlets tell us and what we believe, what we worry about, what we then fear. So if youre on the left, you might believe there is a red news effort to dehumanize these desperate immigrants, to portray them as unworthy of our help. And if youre on the right, you may believe theres a blue news effort to discredit, to demonize opponents of immigration. Heres what bill oreilly said about that. Some on the left believe that the u. S. A. Should accept all socalled refugees, all of them. If you oppose that you are inhumane, uncaring, unchristian and so on. The dem mon mization has been effective. Right now this topic is topping the news agenda. You feel like immigration is the story of the summer. But how long will it really last . Lets end on this sound bite from bill burton whos very worried it will not last that long at all. It is a real crisis and children are at the center of it. The thing that is so sad, because of this media environment, were talking about it, its a big deal, in two weeks i promise you we will not be having this conversation anymore. Immigration comes and goes as an issue. Republicans havent had to pay any meaningful price because the media environment cycles through things so quickly that theyre being tagged for some Media Outlets are very intent on covering this 3 6 5 days a year, im not going to name names. Go on, alex. All news outlets should stay on the immigration beat and not let bill burton be right about the medias tendency to move on for some other topic. Thats all for red news blue news this week. Stay with me. I have a crazy story to tell you about. Its about anonymous tips, prostitution and ideological news media. This has been cascading for two years. Youre not going to believe what happened this week. Stay tuned. To fuel economy. To quality. Todays chevrolet has it all. And great news the chevy 72 hour sale has just been extended. Youll get 0 apr for 72 months. Plus no Monthly Payments for the rest of the summer. 0 apr for 72 months plus no Monthly Payments for the rest of the summer. The chevy 72 hour sale ends monday. Find new roads at your local chevy dealer. Thats why i always choose the fastest intern. R slow. The fastest printer. The fastest lunch. Turkey club. The fastest pencil sharpener. The fastest elevator. The fastest speed dial. The Fastest Office plant. So why wouldnt i choose the fastest wifi . I would. Switch to comcast Business Internet and get the fastest wifi included. Comcast business. Built for business. Now to a shady story of a senator, sex, lies, and videotape. And maybe the cuban government. You might remember back in 2012 when allegations surfaced that senator bob menendez, democrat of new jersey, had paid underage prostitutes for sex while on a trip to the dominican republic. One of the women said she never met menendez. Another told dominican authorities that she had been hired by a lawyer to make false allegations. The quote unquote scandal reemerged when the cia said they had evidence linking cuban agents to the prostitution allegations. The post cited Anonymous Sources for that while other sources denied it. Theres a lot of confusion about it. Menendez reacted on tuesday in this exclusive cnn interview with dana bash. It should be pretty appalling that a Foreign Government would be engaged in trying to affect an election and or the position of the United States senator. Cnns justice correspondent evan perez has been deeply involved with this story. When he was working at the wall street journal he received one of the first anonymous tips about the prostitution claims. I want you to hear his story about how this is all unfolding. Hes here in the studio with me. Evan, thank you for joining me. Thanks for having me. This is one of the journalism 101 stories about double checking and triple checking the facts. Tell me about the tip you received more than two years ago. It was in the summer of 2012, a colleague of mine both received these emails which came from this anonymous tipster. It included allegations that the senator this lands on your doorstep basically . Right. Right. Later on another reporter at the journal received the same set of emails. What was fascinating, we could see that this story had been shopped first to abc news before we got to it. It had been sent to crew which is a Government Watchdog Group and been shopped and sent to the fbi and the fbi had exchanged emails with this Peter Williams character that was purported to have this information. A pretty eager tipster. A pretty eager tipster except the tipster would never come forward to consummate the information. Every time youd follow up youd ask for more information and evidence and get nothing . We could tell it was not something that we could ever really publish. Somebody who was not willing to provide any kind of, you know, meet with anybody or provide any Additional Information so we decided we couldnt do the story. We could tell that abc news had obviously backed off the story as well. What happened next . Months later it shows up in the daily caller. Conservative website. Controlled by tucker carlson. Right. Which is a mix of news and opinion. Right. How did you feel when you saw the story . Well,immediately of course we got calls from our editors and they nt waed to know if we could match the story. There was some pressure. Especially big stories that were part of the conversation. This was as you remember a big part of the conversation. It was. Were you willing to do it . We decided not to do it. We waited several months before we even touched it. And only after it became more of a political story of the senators poll numbers showing that it was doing some damage. This is one be of those situations where you think youre trying to do the right thing, trying to hold back a story that doesnt seem to be true. Right. Yet because of the internet, because of the way information flows these days the story still got out. Right. Exactly. This happens in news rooms around the country. You have a story that breaks on tmz that you would never do yourself. It seems can only be seen months and years later. Right. And maybe cant be seen yet. No, i dont think weve seen the last of this. And the Justice Department is still investigating the senator, and lets talk about that. Thats maybe one of the keys here. Hes being investigated for what . Allegations about fund raising. Well, whether or not he broke the law in reaching out on behalf of political donors, campaign donors. Now, that is still being investigated. We know that the Justice Department is working on that. And so part of this also has to be seen within that scope of perhaps a legal strategy. Some have said that the cuba references, the issues here are distraction from the fund raising issue. Well, it is one way for the lawyers to sort of tell the Justice Department, look, if you bring charges, these are the things were going to bring up. I mean, you know, their point is that the entire investigation is tainted by the fact it began with this false attack, right . The smear campaign. So theyre going to say, look, this shows you your investigation is tainted from the beginning. Adam perez. Thanks for joining me. Thanks. Ive got to fit in a break here. But on the other side of it, were talking about the power of photos. And what happens you when think youre being shown one thing and youre being shown the exact opposite of it. This is a huge media mistake im going to show you after the break. [announcer] who could resist the call. Of americas numberone puppy food brand. With dha and essential nutrients also found in mothers milk. Purina puppy chow. Thats why i always choose the fastest intern. R slow. The fastest printer. The fastest lunch. Turkey club. The fastest pencil sharpener. The fastest elevator. The fastest speed dial. The Fastest Office plant. So why wouldnt i choose the fastest wifi . I would. Switch to comcast Business Internet and get the fastest wifi included. Comcast business. Built for business. Pictures can be worth thousands of words. Show me a story, this week, the danger of misusing that power. Lets look first at these photos. Of palestinians reacting to israeli air strikes in gaza. Now watch this clip from abcs world news and listen carefully to how diane sawyer describes these same photos. We take you overseas now to the rockets raining down on israel today as israel tried to shoot them out of the school. All part of the tinderbox and here an israeli family trying to salvage what they can. One woman standing speechless among the ruins. She meant to say palestinian family. That is a really egregious error. It happened on tuesday nights show and amazingly no one seemed to notice until wednesday night. Thats when activists accused abc of distortion and bias. To me, it sounded like an honest mistake. Was the mistake in the script or in her brain . Keep in mind, most of the damage this week and i say damage, body count and buildings affected, most of the damage has been inflicted by israel. Most of the ruins, she mentioned, are in gaza. Now, on thursday on world news, sawyer apologized. On tuesday evening, we made a mistake and i want to put up these pictures again. During an introduction on the story on the conflict, i misidentified these powerful images. The people in these photos are palestinians in gaza in the aftermath of an air strike by israel, not israelis, as i mistakenly described them. And we want you to know we are truly sorry for the error. And as always, well keep you fully up to date on the ongoing conflict. Next up here, a photo that actually needs thousands of words of context. It shows Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl who is recovering after five years in taliban captivity. The photos surfaced through a pro taliban twitter account this week and people jumped to conclusions about why hes smiling while in captivity. Let me take you behind the scenes here at cnn for a moment. This is a great example of journalism 101. Cnn cautioned anchors not to speculate about why hes smiling in the photo. Theres so much we dont know and we cant ask him. Heres how erin burnett handled it. We dont know the context of the photo. And we dont know whether the smile you see here was natural or coerced. Well keep showing you this picture. You can make perhaps your own judgment on what you think. I think the best judgment is not to make any judgment at all. And lastly, a photo from air force one, on the right, president obama joking with the mayor of dallas. On the left, Texas Governor rick perry very clearly not joking. The photographers were hurried in and out of the room, so all we know perry was laughing for the rest of the flight. But his frowny face has been repurposed all over the web. Check out what a Texas Democratic party did with the photo. They added a character grumpy cat. Thats all for this televised edition of reliable sources. I snuck a Little Something into the script here. I want to say thank you to the senior producer of reliable resources. He took me under his wing when i was just a guest host last year. And he has taught me a whole, whole lot about television. Hes about to start a new job here at cnn. So thank you. Well be next week, next sunday at 11 00 eastern time. And set your dvr if youre not going to be home. Check out our Media Coverage on cnn. Com. I have news about an amazing new movie called boyhood at cnn. Com reliablesources. Stay tuned for a news update and state of the union with Candy Crowley. Good morning, here are the big stories were following this hour. Israel is warning people in gaza that more air strikes are coming, aimed at hamas sites. The Israel Defense forces dropped leaflets in gaza to warn people to leave. The Gaza Health Ministry says 168 people have died so far in the conflict. Israel says today it intercepted two rockets over tel aviv fired from gaza. One rocket that hit the city severely injured an israeli teenager. Actor and comedian tracy morgan is back at home after being released from a rehab hospital center. He continues to recover from a car crash that left him critically injured last month. Officials say a walmart truck rear ended morgans limo on the new jersey turnpike. The crash killed his friend and injured two others with him. Morgan is suing walmart over the incident. Germany and argentina have a date with destiny a few hours from now when they meet in the World Cup Final for the third time in history. Argentina striker messi is considered the best player in the world but germany is the clear favorite to win, especially after that 71 victory over the host country brazil. Those are the headlines, state of the union with Candy Crowley starts right now. More children weighed on to american soil while washington idles over what to do with them. Today arizona senator john mccain on stopping the kids from coming and dealing with the 52,000 who have arrived since october. I have seen these children and they are being treated humanely, but it cannot continue. And the scene at the rio grande, as viewed by one of the u. S. Border guards who works it. Then hes been president for five and a half years. When hes going to take responsibility for something