Immigration with the white house leaking news that obama is delaying his promise to issue an executive order before the election. Is the press buying into the white house . Political coverage kicking into high gear as the fall election season getting under way with republicans still favored to catch the senate. Which side won the week . Well take a look at our new segment, midterm media madness. Chuck todd making his debut at meet the press with a president ial interview. Can he revive the damaged press after the damage done by David Gregory. Plus, the hackers that leaked the nude sebly photos. Excuse me, what about the endless media that run stars with topless sun bathing or who have wardrobe malfunctions . Arent they exploiting women . Im howard kurtz and this is media buzz. President obama getting hammered by the media told reporters overseas this week that he wants to degrade and destroy isis. But he also used this language. We can continue to shrink isils sphere of influence, its effectiveness, its financing, its military capabilities to the point where it is a manageable problem. And hes drawing flack for words like manageable. Liberal world like dan na millbank accusing obama of happy talk. People saying they dont want to see their president be hawkish, but they hate to see him weakish. Only a few are defending the president. If president obama does not formally declare a war on muslim terrorists, hes doing all americans a terrible dissurface. I think the terrorist threat is overstated. I think were spendsing too much time and too much money republicans are blaming the killing of sotlov to the president of the United States is another day at office. How is the president forming this debate . Joining us now, lauren ashburn, steven hanes and Juan Williams, columnist from the hill. Media war frenzy like 2003. Does this remind you of the run up to the iraq war . No, it really doesnt. In 2003, we had the administration pushing a wear, pushing an agenda. Weapons of mass destruction and the press saluting, basically saying, hey, whatever you want, thats fine with us. 2014, flash forward, and you have the press pushing to do something, whatever something is, and you have the administration leading from behind saying we dont have a strategy and the press pouncing on that. Thats an interesting phrase, steve hayes. There does seem to me to be this demand that the president do something, even though military action is risky and there are no great options here. Yeah. Im not sure that theyre pushing him to do something as much as what hes done to this point doesnt work. You have a president who understated dramatically the threat of variety of jihadists, whether it was going back to the Christmas Day bomber and the president calling it an isolated are you saying, therefore, the pt press wants obama to admitted error and apologize . No, i dont think thats necessarily the case. I think theyre pressing him because hes said things like isis is a jv squad. If youre covering the white house on a daytoday basis, you have to ask that question, how could we have gotten it so wrong . I think its responsible coverage and i dont get the sense that theyre necessarily beating the drums for war. Do you see many in the media pushing or advocating or somehow wanting military action here . Id have to have my head in the hole not to see it. Its all over. Are you saying i have my head in the hole . No. I said i would have to have my head in a hole. Thanks. But i dont think theres any question. You just played clips of bill oreiley and others saying if we have to declare a war right now. I think its very interesting. Obviously, in the media narrative, howie, yes, the more dramatic action taken, the bigger our numbers, the bigger our ratings. I think thats a dangerous thing. Hold on, hold on, youre saying theres an institutional bias or imperative for war bau because that would get more people to watch our Television Shows . I think thats part identity. I think what has happened, you look back historically, recent history, the syria situation, the big red line, congress wouldnt approve. The merp people didnt favor it. If there had been, if the media were sort of predisposed to want war, to want the drama as juan suggests, we would have seen that with respect to syria. We didnt see that at all. I come back to a point, had we touched, which is there is no good strategy yet people think, oh, obama said there was no strategy. I said there was not a strategy of dealing with isis in syria, not in general, but that quote wag taken and used as evidence that this guy was not feisty. This is a guy who took out bin laden, took out the it wasnt one of the great moments in president ial press conference history. No. But lets go to the question of war. It was the very first question Nbcs Chuck Todd with meet the press. Are you preparing the country to go back to ward what are . Im preparing the country to make sure that we deal with the threat that is isil. What do you make ooh that exchange . Media like to know that there is a clear line between what were doing and what were not doing. Are we going to war, are we not going to war . You saw james rowsen asking jen pataki the same thing. Are you going to use this word, war . So far, nobody is using that. Nobody is using the word war. If there was going to be a movie, we are in quite a muddle. Our allies, our brand, syria, these are people who werent our allies and have never been our allies. But, you know, i mentioned at the top, steve, the president ordering a fresh round of air strikes against isis in or out to protect a major dam there. Are we falling into the trap of not judging him by his actions, but judging him by this linguistic debate . I think thats always a risk. Perhaps that was the case in this situation just given that hes finally doing something. I think for a long time, the president had been all talk and his actions, if you look at the number of air strikes, they were really not many. But i think lauren is actually right. Imagine that. No, i didnt mean it that way. Youre absolutely right is what i meant to say. If you look at the way the media like to cover stories like this, that are inherently messy stories, we want to impose a narrative and say here is whats happening. I think the reason were having so much trouble doing that with this president in this context is that the president himself doesnt know. Hes muddled. Its muddled in his head. So the the policy is muddled to the Media Coverage is muddled. Interestingly, the president did use tougher language with nato and the five criticized him for going to stone hedge and saying it was cool. Sometimes do you have the impression that he cannot catch a break with the commentators . At the moment, he certainly cant. At the moment, its everybody, left and right i would say, also, because youll notice that some of the left have become highly critical in terms of the midterms because his poll numbers have went so i think the conventional decision with obama is hes not with it, he doesnt get it. I must tell you, though, when i look at someone who is praised, which is british Prime Minister cameron or Angela Merkel in germany, their rhetoric tends to be more shrill. But are they doing anything more than president obama . No. I was struck in this meet the press interview, should youave gone golfing the day the murder of jim foley . And he said the optics were bad and i admit that. And he also admitted the fact that he is not good at the theater, at the theater of politics. And thats the first time weve heard him say that. And boy, is it true. This leads us to the next question, and that is the second murder, brutal beheading of another american journalist in syria, steve sotlov. Al gentleman zee ra is refusing to show images from that video. Shocking. Because they showed Osama Bin Laden talking to americans. Right. I talked about this after jim foleys killing. Should the other networks stop running those pictures . I also talked about it on social buzz where there was an outcries, the isismiablackout was talked about quite a bit. The reasoning behind that, as people were saying and other journalists were saying is because we dont want to give them the satisfaction of showing these brutal killings. And there was also the flip side to this, which is the glenn greenwolds of the world saying this is a slippery slope to eliminating freedom. People should be able to press freedom, that people should be able to see these images. But last point, i do not want to be sitting at home with my 6yearold on the news having to see this used as wallpaper over and over again. I dont want to sanitize the news, but i think once its covered initially, it shouldnt be covered over and over and over again. We should cover the story adegrees ifrly, but not those pictures. I want to close this segment by talking about developments on benghazi, as you know, a new book out, five commandos or former commandos saying the cio in charge ordered them to delay a rescue attempt on that tragic night. Thumbs up, thumbs up, then what happened . I said hey, were ready to go. Bob looked right through me and he looks at the team leader and he goes, you guys need to wait. Bob was the cias base chief in benghazi. Fox and the New York Times, Washington Post and others having carried a word, do you think this latest twist in the story has been underplayed . Yeah, i think its been underplayed considerably. I would argue that the New York Times sort of checked the box. They got the book, wrote a short story and said basically there isnt much new in the book. There is a lot new in the book. It changes the timeline considerably. This is an incredibly compelling story. This is one of the more gripping hours of Television Production i have ever seen because the story is so strong. Does it deserve as much coverage as it got . Pure news judgment, its kind of old at this point. I thought that fox did a very good job but the point for me is that initially the charge was that the president or that our military had somehow been negligent and not protected the lives of our diplomatic personnel, and theres nothing there that would suggest that. Maybe some very bad judgment from aides, but theres a lot we still dont know about this story. Send me your tweets. We always read some of your tweets at the end of the program. Ahead, our new segment on the fall elections. Midterm media madness. When we come back, how the white house spun the press on delaying an executive order on immigration. Chuck todd is former print guy who became nbcs chief white house correspondent. The networked forced out David Gregory after six years of struggles at meet the press. The new moderator made his debut today. What does he need to say, do you think, that will rally the public to his strategy . We are an exhausted nation. And i think this president is taking a a fairley reasoned, measured response. Now, we obsess. Do you think its been too poll driven about it . No. Do you think thats i dont think hes been poll driven enough. Joining us now from new york, joe koncha. He ran a round table and tried to put his stamp on the table. How did he do . I thought it was a pretty good job, howie. Im going to disagree with the others a little bit, conversational with the president , yes, but he didnt challenge him enough in certain situations. When talking about going golfing 15 minutes after around making the the president said with a straight face, the theater of the presidency doesnt come naturallily to me. Thats where chuck shook his head and allowed the president to go on unhitered. This is the same president who was roundly mocked and criticized for taking a selfie at the Nelson Mandela funeral. I would have asked the question there, i think was the gotcha moment. At times, chuck was good. He has to improve in that regard. He began the show before he got to the president s of the United States by introducing his panelists. Does that make this more of an ensemble show . Well, certainly the addition of joe scarborough, i dont know if that expands your audience that much. Joe is on the last place cable morning news show right now. He doesnt bring a large audience with him. He has the problem of being considered a rhino by conservatives. Hes not trusted by liberals because hes a run. Theyre adding luke russert, as well. I would say that, unfortunately, luke russert is there because of nepotistic welfare. He wasnt there today. He will be a permanent part of the show, though. I think that will away problem. One more point around chuck. Chuck is a walk, as you guys talked about before. Hes great for those who are political junkies inside the beltway. If your goal is to go from third place where they are now to where they were under russert, you have to appeal to the casual viewer. I dont know if chuck todd is the guy to do that. Hes not a polished tv guy, but people like not necessarily seeing a blow die drooed anchor. Like me. Let me switch in our last minute to the view, adding two new panelists after blowing up the show when Barbara Walters left. One is rosy paris and the other is nicole wallace, put ago conservative back which maybe means more talk about politics. Whats yao vur of this view . Well, you know, you have Rosie Odonnell and Whoopi Goldberg and perez. This is a terrific cast if were living in 1994. You have nicole wallace. I would have liked for at least two of the panelist toes be younger, to be hipper. Their whole problem with the view was appeal to go a young, female audience. Theyve gone this route. I would have gone with essie cup because clearly shes not busy on crossfire lately. I maybe would have gone ann coulter in the conservative role because she knows how to take a punch and certainly knows how to deliver one back. So the view, its in the box thinking. They should have gone a different, younger direction. Its going to continue to strugglistru struggle in the ratings. Im hoping it will get back to talking about more hot, political topics. It could be entertaining, we shall see. Joe, thanks very much for joining us. Thank you, howie. After the break, from the economy to turmoil in the middle east, how is the coverage shaping the midterm elections . Our new segment, coming up. And later, bill oreiley versus the state Department Spokes woman, how did it get so personal . At the top of the hou for americas news headquarters. Now back to media buzz. Were kicking off our you new midterm media segment. Each week, well analyze how the issues are being covered, how theyre helping or hurting candidates and vote on who won the week on the media battlefield. President obama tried pushing Economic Issues on labor day while john mccain was slamming the president over isis. America deserves a raise. Folks are doing very well on wall street. Theyre doing very well in Corporate Board rooms. Give america a i was astounded when the president of the United States said that the world has always been messy and its been accentuated by social media. That means that the president of the United States is either in denial or overwhelmed. So how is the coverage affecting the fall elections . Joining us now, bob cusack and amy. Amy, obama talking about boosting the minimum wage and ripping americans on labor day. Did the coverage last more than i dont think it lasted half a news cycle. I think it lasted for about 14 seconds. This is really the struggle for democrats right now. They want to make this election, like 2012 election, a contrast between the democrats, like the president was saying about the minimum wage and that income inequality and a republican message that they say is really focused on the 1 . They havent been able to do that because of lots of things getting in the way of that message. But i thought this whole show, the top issue Americans Care about is the economy and thats not reflected in the coverage. No, thats right. And president obama needs the base to show up and thats why hes going to these issues. Hes going to talk about it a lot in the fall, but is it resinating . Thats the big question. Resinating, every day you turn on the television and were hearing about isis, the president s handling of it, the beheading of the second american journalist as i mentioned earlier. Does the coverage of that resina resinate . I think part of the reason youre season the president s Approval Ratings go south, not just noshlly, but in a lot of these battleground states is this relentless focus on how bad things look overseas, all right, and it gets reflected then in the president s own Approval Ratings. The accepts of hes not taking leadership, where is he . What are we doing . What is the strategy . So every time bad news happens in the way it has piled on to this president in august, it has the effect of bringing his own Approval Ratings down which, of course, trickle down into every competitive congressional race. I would say, bob, that this coverage of isis and syria and all of that dominated more this week than any other story this side of joan rivers death. Absolutely. Trof politics is back and we havent seen that in a while. And thats what the and the president had a tough august. He made some gas. That hurts democrats. So he needs to have a better fall if democrats are going to hold on to the senate, no doubt about it. And now the news thats broken in the last 24 hours, of course, and i hear you mix it up on this is the immigration delay. And im wondering, does that now take that off the table, at least in terms of Media Coverage in september or october or are we going to be hearing a lot from journalists and pundits about how ticked off both sides are because the republicans say, well, hes still going to do it and the advocates of Immigration Reform feel left out . So over the last few weeks, since the crisis, really, moved up on the consciousness of americans, you saw aft least five senate races where there were adds by the republicans on this border crisis. So it was already becoming part of the campaign messaging. You saw issues about Illegal Immigrants getting access to things like health care, things like that. So i think it will still be an issue that republicans use. However, it wont be to bobs point one of those issues that really chins up the republican base, had the president gone in and said yes, im taking executive action, that would have given republicans who are already more enthusiastic to vote than democrats one more reason to be more engaged and encouraged to go vote. How much will the the hill will continue to cover it. How much will the press continue to cover it . The congress is coming back. Well be talking to the lawmakers who wanted action and the media action about democrat criticizes democrat or republican criticizes republican. Do you lost interparty warfare . We do. It is much more interesting. It was one of those things where the red state democrats were facing tough elections. The ferguson violence was over, thankfully. This week we had eric holder announcing a civil rights investigation of the Police Department in that Missouri Town on a much broader scale than just looking at Michael Browns death. Does this coverage of this issue democratic voters . I dont think so. I think this is one of those issues that the investigation issue where its going to take a long time before we can get an answer. So this is not something were going to see sort of pop up. So the urgency is definitely gone. And i think in talking to folks, too, about this issue, especially those who are africanamerican, the frustration i think for many of them that the president does not make stronger statements, that that would have really pumped up. If youre talking about using it as to encourage voters. Now that we dont have cameras there every night, looking at people, some of them Looting Stores and engaging in other kind of disobedience . I agree. Eric holder is very active on this issue. Some wanted the president to go to ferguson. But yeah, i think it stays at least for now. Okay. So what were going to do each week here is ask each of you who won the week in terms of Media Coverage, republicans or the democrats, in terms of the way the prominence of the story has gotten the way they played. Amy, you first. I think republicans and to your point, the entire week was about isis and not about the things that democrats want to tack about. The president and the Vice President both on labor day started off with a message about the economy. They were hoping that that would be the discussion up for this week. Instead, it was all about terrorism and whether the president has a plan to fight it. That does not help democrats. Bob, who won the media week . Im going to go with the democrats this week because there have been a lot of stories about the race in kansas. Anytime republican ves to worry about a senate race in kansas, thats good for the democrats. Democrats who were running were able to criticize the president on in the longterm, i think th hurts. But for the week, ill go with the dems. I like it. We have the democratic candidate in kansas trying to drop out to help an independent candidate who the democrats hope will defeat incumbent senator pat roberts. Its all very confusing and well talk about it more next week. Thanks very much for stopping by. Coming up, the Huffington Post hires a controversial football player. Bill oreileys war of words with the state Department Press and the magazine that ran a pace saying, slavery . Well, it wasnt so bad after all. Bill oreiley got into a dust up with a state Department Spokes woman this weekend and it got rather personal. He was criticizing her after a response to our guy, adjacent rowsen, when he added this. With all due respect, anna with, and you dont have to comment on this, that woman looks way out of her depth. The way she delivers, it doesnt look like she has the gravitas to this job. That prompted this stinging resort from marie hart. I think that when the anchor of a leading cable news show uses, quite frankly, sexist, personally offensive language, that i actually dont think they would ever use about a man against a person that shares this podium with me, i think i have an obligation and i think its important to step up and say thats not okay. My take is that oreiley started this fight, ann marie harp is entitled to aggressively defend her boss. But there wasnt a scintilla of sexism in anything oreiley said. What does his criticism have to do with jen socky being a woman . Here is the proof. He looks to me to be befuddled. Jay carney, you may not have liked him, but he looked like he understood the process. Mr. Earnest doesnt look like he doesnt have a lot of he has a lot of credibility. Oreiley going after if white house spokesman. The economists an outrageous review of Edward Baptist about slave slavery. It said mr. Baptist has not written an objective outlook by slavery, almost all of the blacks are victims and almost all the whites villains. This is not history, its advocacy. Wait a second, almost all the blacks who were bought and sold as human victims. Wow. The economist as now called slavery an evil system, withdrawing the review and apologizing. Dawn tunte stallworth has jd a new team. Espns Keith Obermann calls foul from the sidelines. So your supposed news website just hired to Cover National Security a still thee writticly active nfl player with no journalist experience who is a 9 11 truther, but lying about when he reformed. Stallworth told the Washington Post he no longer believes in those 9 11 tweets. What a relief. Ahead on media buzz the uproar of those hack eed nude photos. But isntwoont time for our digital download t. Media world was filled with outrage and snar kiness after the hack of nude photos from a number of female celebrities. The fallout tonight continues after a hacking attack involving some very personal intimate photographs of celebrities including oscar winner jennifer lawrence, posted online for all the world to see. This morning, several a list stars are the target of what appears to be one of the biggest celebrity hacking leaks. This is great for them. Well, not great for them. Why . Maybe for their careers. But what about all the Media Outlets that routinely post pictures of women who suffer wardrobe malfunctions or are in farious states of undress . Arent they part of the problem, howie . Yes, they dont get called on it or by very few people. The hauf fing ton post has an entire section devoted to side boob. Daily mail does this all the time. Its objectifying women, from a female point of view. The Huffington Post is one of the biggest offenders. Its run by a woman. I think what that says is that advertising revenue and clicks are often more important than how women are treated. Thats because digital revenue is half of what print revenue was, and you have to get a lot more clicks in order to make money. Maybe were all desensitized by the porn culture and the fact that so many actresses take off their clothes in movies. We have to make a distinction, when a paris hilton sex tape happens to hit the web, everyone suspicious they wanted it up there. Thats often b list celebrities. Or c list. It is the big joke. Lets get something going about our career because our movies not being picked up for movies. But what happens is that people think that that goes across the board for everybody, and thats not true. I mean these actresses dont need that kind of publicity, nor do they want it. What was troubling with me with jennifer laerns and the others, you a lot of men online who either repost the pictures or make ugly comments, as if theyre not allowed to take pictures from the privacy of their own home. The people and the hackers and the people who post and post and post again all of these pictures are part of the problem. But i have to say i was really surprised at the furor that came roaring through the media on this. I didnt think it would be an issue that would catch fire. In my view, the media, to talk about sex and nudity with this story. Without anybody saying its technology. By dressing it up about being about privacy and technology. Still to come, you wont believe the british headline about the new head at the bbc. A cnn reporter making off with the merchandise . H here are a few of your top tweets. Are the media beating the war drums or spotlighting the president s inaction. Cg, more drum beat than spotlights. One from our facebook page, forest johnson, the main ones who are banging the drum beat forward is fox news. Back to twitter, pamela jones, its a drum beat forward from the same dummies in the main street media who led the drum beat for the iraq war. Rob dobbs, news is all about ratings and not actual journalism. War gets ratings. Thats exactly what Juan Williams said at the top of the show. It is about ratings, thats why people want controversy. Wow, okay. Well see if we get those ratings. Sometimes you wonder what century it is. When rona fairhead, a former ceo was named to take over the governing body of britains network. It said mother of three. The Washington Post a bit different, Katherine Weymouth is leaving as ceo and publisher, the last link to the graham family. Post says the new ceo, a former politico executive and onetime reagan official has three daughters. That information tucked into the 29th paragraph. Major layoffs are unfortunately becoming rather routine. Here is what cnns lisa dejar dan got. Id like to say thank you cnn, thank you to one of the best bureaus in the world and one of the best beat teams in the world. Do we want to take pencils . Pencils, got them. Of course, im sorry cnn has decided to eliminate my reporter position on the hill and cut back on congressional coverage. I hand in my badge with few regrets. But one is that there are far too few red heads on cnn. To that im sore. Reporter to my fell he gingers, i have failed you. I cant help you out on that either. That was the best video ever for departing. It does actually go to the sad state of affairs in media. A lot of my friends at usa today took buyouts or were called and said your position is no longer needed. I goes to the status of the industry. Its become so routine and its depressing. Lisa gave us all a laugh. Yes, redheads. Thats it for this edition of media buzz. Im howard kurtz. Check out our facebook page, you can read my daily column
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.