0 and we want to hear from you, send me a tweet about the show that's @howardkurtz. the coverage has been as chaotic and as polarizing as i have ever seen it. left wingers are slamming right wingers and conservative commentators are slamming each other over the republican tactics that have again brought us to the brink of an impasse over obamacare and government spending. and everyone has strong opinions on the freshman senator whose 21 hours of speechifying put him firmly in the media spotlight. this is a brilliant move by cruz because she's trying to take over the republican party. he's trying to take over the conservative wing. >> who or what has the nerve, the person or the party to put this princeton cowboy in his place? >> i mean the responsible republicans realize that a government shutdown would be sta disastrous politically, dart rouse practically and doesn't have any upside for him. >> jim garrity, contributing editor at national view, and kirsten powers, a fox contributor. much of the coverage is focused on this belt way media circus and ted cruz. >> the impact on premiums, subsidies, jobs, the federal poverty level all have been eclipsed by ted cruz on the floor reading dr. seuss's "green eggs and ham" and the tenor of the coverage this week has been much lighter. take this "gq" october issue for example, ted cruz, the distinguished whacko bird from texas. it talks about how john mccain calls him a whacko bird saying he's put this moniker on me, i guess i am. >> he's not exactly been staying off the television circuit. he said to me that john stewart and stephen colbert had made fun of him. but they also played clips of him attacking obamacare. >> it's a pretty strange ironic component to the coverage of cruz. all the other coverage before what's obama going to do, finding people to bash ted cruz, that's very easy to find this this town. so enough of this, oh, how wart, isn't it terrible the way ted cruz thinks it's all about him? let's talk more about ted cruz. >> and it's very easy to find people to bash people from texas, including many conservative commentators on his side of the aisle and isn't that making it easier for the media to criticize can kted cruz. >> i disagree with the idea that the media hasn't covered the different facets of obamacare. frankly it's kind of boring and i don't think it gets a lot of the -- >> kind of boring? >> i'm fascinated by it. >> millions of americans. >> but it doesn't get the sort of sexy media attention and ted cruz is the news because he's the one that is being credited by the tea party caucus or the insane caucus, that they are -- that they're the ones that are basically going to cause the government to shut down, right? >> when kirsten can approvingly quo -- >> what's a princeton cowboy? i princeton was all about dignified, higher education. >> in the defense, you're right, kirsten, in your defense, the "new york times" had a piece talking about how companies will restrict the number of providers that you can have. usa today -- >> if you sign up for these obamacare exchanges. >> and "usa today" my former employer also had an interesting piece about how 500,000 people may not be covered under obamacare. >> on that point, the day earlier this week when the administration announced exactly what the premiums would be in various states, depending on whether you're a family of four or an individual, i understand those numbers can be disputed. but the "new york times" has put it on the front page and at the same time, everyone else was -- i shouldn't say they didn't cover it. it was covered but much more wrapped up in what i would call the circus. what do you expect that's more interesting to cover. >> one of the problems in obamacare is that the exchanges have not launched yet and so everything is speculation. even what we're finding is that they're finding that the cost is actually lower than cbo projected because it's a market place so things are starting to month. so we don't really know what's going to happen. and i would hope that as it plays out that we're going to have more serious coverage of how it's affecting people. >> that example very rarely matches the reader. one example of a single person living in this place, because it's geographically -- it's hard for people to say here's how it's going to affect your prices. >> don't take my word for it, you just happen to see a survey from the kaiser family foundation. 56% of those said that the coverage in their view has been about politics, and only 6% said it was mostly about how the law might impact people. but half of it didn't trust any media source here. 10% said they trusted fox, 2% said they trusted msnbc. let's see if we're talking about ted cruz like many other shows on television. rush limbaugh took issue with the press coverage. >> what is utterly maddening about all of these reports, is what do they write about all day long, they write about the horserace, they write about this person, they write like they're hollywood gossip columnists. >> a r a lot of the attacks have been anonymous, which i think is not necessary. he said it distrablcts from wha really matters. >> i don't think it's accidental that ted cruz is going in that direction. i think we also have to keep in mind that this is someone who will be running for president in 2016. >> according to a new poll, the president and the front ---20% of the people are -- you're saying that ted cruz is, he wants this coverage, he's making it about him. and he says it's not about me, it's about the issue. >> was it almost 20, 21 hours, standing there, does he have a family -- >> i would not, could not sam i am. >> yes, he has a family and he's hitting all of the sunday shows, and he is out there, wants to be out there. and as kirsten pointed out, is the face, is becoming the face of this. >> what did ted cruz say during that filibuster. oh, "green eggs and ham." he was reading the story to his kids watching at home. he talked for 21 more hours, with very strong criticism of obamacare. but we're going to skip over all that because it sounds kind of silly. >> the reason that got so much skeptical coverage is not so much what he said during the 21 hours, because it was seen as a stunt because in the end, he was not going to stop the bill and he got only 18 other republicans. there is this disconnect between cruz saying i don't want this to be about me i want it to be about the issue. >> he wants this to be about him, he is raising his profile. he's tearing a page out of rand paul's book and trying to get the same type of attention. i don't think that he did as good a job as rand paul did in that filibuster. i think that was a good filibuster and worth why would, he's raising his profile, he wants to be a leader in the face of the republican party. >> a lot of this is not exactly comparable, a lot of this has to do with the fact that the republican party is so split premi premiums. ted cruz did this, what do you think of it? and a lot of people are saying it's the worst thing ever. >> and against the republicans obviously who he would love to blame for a government shutdown which is again likely to happen in the next 36 hours. >> if you talk to somebody who says, i don't know, i was watching fox news and they said it was horrible. and you can say, you know what? don't take my word for it, go on the website. >> kirsten? >> i've been very critical of the president in the past when he's come after fox news to delegitimize fox news, to somewhere this whole campaign, that we're not real journalists, this is just off the cuff funny line. i don't feel like it's a real attack. >> it's a slight. >> a lot of people here who don't like obamacare, yeah, there are, and it's not any different than a republican complaining about the "new york times" or something like that. it's just a laugh line. >> if he would have said msnbc, it would have been the equivalent of that. somewhere somebody's saying, that's exactly what i said in that memo. >> now we're heading to the government shutdown and who knows how long it will last. and journalists kind of love these crises, even though this is a several inflicted crisis. >> you've been in there business for a long period of time, how did they cover last week? how will they cover in that? i think we're going to see more of the coverage of the politics of it, not of the substance. i went online to try to figure this out for a friend of mine. i couldn't figure it out. >> figure out the premiums of obamacare? >> you can't. i could find a lot about the coverage of green eggs and ham. >> the one difference is, you will have stories about national parks shutting down people not getting their checks, tourists not being able to go to the washington monument. that makes it real a and that will change the nature of the story and maybe will republicans get blamed? >> i can't -- there's no scenario where republicans don't get blamed for this. there are reporters on planes right now to red states all over the country to file stories about people not being able to get their government services and it's going to become a localized story. >> kirsten powers, tim garrity, thank you very much. when we come back, ari fleischer has an embarrassing twitter story.