Im howard kurtz and this is mediabuzz. Julian assange and, of course, the media and punching back on twitter, lets get back to my interview with sean spicer, i spoke to him from trump tower. Sean spicer, welcome. Thank you, howie. Donald trump tweeted, im asking the chairs of the house and Senate Committees to investigate top secret intelligence shared with nbc prior to me seeing it. I can understand his concern, but does that signal as president he will be ordering Leak Investigations to find out Reporter Sources . Well, its not the Reporter Sources, its trying to figure out where it came from. Theres a big difference between reportest doing their job and sourcing thicks and people in the government improperly giving Classified Information to people or potentially doing that. I think theres a big difference whether youre targeting the source or recipient. Right. Trumps twitter Feed Paralyzes and some seem say, hey, we shouldnt cover tweets which is ridiculous, why do you think the short messages are unnerving to the establishment . Its not just the length of them but whose behind him, he has 50 million across three different platforms. What people have realized in washington and elsewhere when he tweets, he has a movement thats behind him. Hi understands the frustration and concerns of the American People like nobody else and he can speak directly to them and the thing about twitter thats unique is you see the number of retweets and actions taken and the coverage it gets and people understand that, you know, mountains get moved when he tweets, businesses react. Governments act, he gets things done, he is successful because of the message that he has and the movement that he commands. Youre not getting the memo in advance and you have to respond to questions about this, do you think that will change a bit after january 20th . Nope, not at all. The thing that i find interesting about the question, i know youre asking from a lot of the Mainstream Media they ask a question if theres something wrong. I think its been phenomenally successful. To some degree, the headline that you read its right. He has tremendous amount of sway and influence on other politicians, on companies, executives, foreign leaders because they understand that he has tapped into where the country is and where the support is finish key positions in policy. That he stated in an interview with sean hannity. Right, trump accused the media of peddling lies in painting him, he says youre very good at this. Do you think the media lie and are intentionally dishonest . I think some reporters clearly have a bias. And choose to look at only part of the story. Theres no question about it. Ive been doing this for a long time. Thank you for the complement but i also believe that some reporters have chosen to look at the model of reporting which is ignore some facts before more will be sensational and will generate more retweets and clicks and i think thats dishonest. A job of a good reporter should be that you put all the facts out there, report the entire story in context and for some reporters they would rather overlook certain facts because the story wouldnt be as glamorous and sensational. Makes it harder when your boss says the job is dishonest. And i have, we will continue to do that and reporters will do job fairly and and responsibly, and what i think some of these folks when they bepped bend dishonest, they should be called out. Reporters have a First Amendment right to write whatever they want, frankly. I think the President Elect has a right to correct the record and make sure that factual inaccurate chris is actually called. And you actually have that right. Something every day, may not be televised, maybe off xara gaggle or meeting, whats the argument about televising every briefing . What im doing is the same thing that the President Elect has challenged everyone that he has asked to serve in his administration to look in, Press Briefing or getting information out or whether its reforming the va. Right. On the question of the cameras right. Sometimes once the cameras goes on it becomes a show than informational session where news is discontinued and back and forth with the press core. It wasnt until, you know, it hasnt been that long since thats been the case and i think there are other institutions that have done that, again, maybe we dont change anything. Maybe we add a gaggle to the to the daily press conference, maybe we just invite more of the American People into this conversation, which i think the President Elect is very keen on because this is a conversation that shouldnt be limited to just the big media, if you will. Theres a lot of proliferation specially on conservative media side and people have done a good job and they should have equal access and have questions asked and answered to get that perspective out to key constituencies. Thanks for coming in front of our cameras, hope you will come back. Of course, howie. Have a great weekend. Joining us political commentator, amy holmes and charles, fox news contributor. Erin, donald trump is accusing the media outright lying about skepticism, essentially accepted the findings of this report. Is he going too far of that charge of lying . I think he is. I think this would be unpopular but the media doesnt always lie. What sean spicer said that the media would include some and exclude others. Youre saying theres bias, theres tilting, out of context but you dont think its intentionally lying . No. Trump told the New York Times that all amounts to a political witch hunt. What the press sees unusual skeptical what i mentioned to spicer, incoming president at odds with the u. S. Intel agencies over russia, he says as detractors using the Hacking Issue to Ill Light Miez victory . I think he would be right. As conservative knew existed. Conservative commentators that despise Julian Assange, making him into an icon because he damaged the democrats during the election. I think among conservatives theres mixed views about Julian Assange because National Security issues were at stake and now theres still mixed views of Julian Assange if you read hotair. Com, they take what Julian Assange has to take with a lot of salt and looking at exactly what he did expose and whether or not that was helpful to republicans in the election. Six years ago sarah palin linked assange to a terrorist when he attacked personal emails that they were boring. Whats going on here . People dont have principles. The cancer of American Politics which is that people will believe or say what suits their partisan interest in the shortterm. Both parties do this. Across the board phenomena. We have a lot of people that used to talk about how a menace he is. This is the fundamental problem with American Politics across the board. People no longer make principled arguments, they make opportunistic arguments and this is a galling and extreme case of it. Here is what donald trump tweeted. Dishonest media like saying that im in agreement with Julian Assange, wrong, i simply state what he states, i am for the people. A clip you might have seen of donald trump and businessman billionaire talking to brian kilmeade. Evolution of views about assange . Maybe so. Thats the principle we would like to call saving the tape. We might see the rest of the conservative elites who are now, you know, siding with assange, flipping back is at some Point Wikileaks put out more about Whats Going On in the government in the next couple of years in Trumps Administration because inevitable things will go wrong. Nbc Joe Scarborough, joe, whats repulsive says, hannity is the patheticically low ratings you have. I will let them have their food fight and watch. Conservatives have always had a conflicting attitude toward assange. The information is important, how we are getting it, thats something we need to look for the first moment out the gate they had the story out there. When i woke up when i saw this this morning, i thought to myself, youve got to be kidding me. Howie within hours reversed the vote on the ethics office. A lot of people credited Trump Tweeting but wasnt he in part react to go negative headlines. In the sense he didnt know it was going to happen in advance, he probably just read about it in the papers and its a tribute to Donald Trumps common sense if he was able to see that what Everybody Else saw which was a bonehead move and terrible he could have said nothing. Leads me to my next point, in the whole matrix of factors that cause gop representatives to back down on this, the trump tweet was the most important and showed that he was willing to go up against them and sort of bring them into line and, you know, the question is how many more times is that going to happen over the next few years. It was a little opening power struggle. Howie the house was also flooded with angry calls from constituents and that always gets the attention of members of congress. This happened on the morning where the big Front Page Stories and New York Times and Washington Post that basically said, this is the first thick you guys are going to do in the trump era . Okay, there are negative headlines about House Republicans all of the time. Why does anybody think that this time negative headlines forced the republicans to reverse course. Howie very little effect . I think its more the calls in trumps tweets. Of course, when donald trump has has the ability to separate himself from House Republicans who are not popular, still, hes going to do it. He is going to show independents. There maybe arguments both democrats and republicans hate the independent office but one hot button for the press is this was done Behind Closed Doors on a federal holiday . Certainly it seems sneaky. I want to leave it at chuck saying that is a tribute to Donald Trumps common sense. Howie we will write that down. I do. [laughter] what little he has. But i do think that that trump role is whats decisive because it is true that the republicans get bashed in Washington Post headlines every day. Gets criticism across the board including from conservatives and conservatives on this network. He ran against the gop establishment. Think about this, a lot of voters in the rust belt might have voted for obama in 2008 and 2012 and put donald trump over the edge. He knows that. When he has the opportunity to bash obama, hes going to do it. Howie hes a fugitive from justice, i want to underscore that hold in Ecuadorian Embassy for Sexual Assault allegations. Great to see you this sunday. Up next, Tucker Carlson on the challenge of succeeding megyn kelly and responding to critics and next time time star, your ego is soaring out of control . No. Its a little intimidating. But, you know, the beauty of working at fox, fox has a big audience. Im not going to convince myself that its about me. Where it works makes all the difference basically. Howie you do things differently at 9 00 oclock its live hour in prime time. Are you going to make tweaks and adjustments here . Of course. My view is that you can have a newsy interview that cuts through a lot of the cant and gets to the core point, doesnt need to be confrontation and not direct, i think viewers want that. Howie founder of the daily caller, some Media Critics react to this by saying, youre sympathetic to donald trump and now fox doesnt have a skeptic, fair on unfair . Voters want deep skepticism taped on washington specially but on all concentration of power. Theres not enough about that at all. At all. Our team and their team, its very partisan but i think theres a lot of sucking up to power. Now more than ever. Howie you said trump wasnt your first choice for president and you werent sure if he wanted the job. When you launch the choice, you want to hold people accountable and people tend to lie and does that apply to the new president and the new administration . Of course, it does. It will apply to anybody who is taking my money and power over me. Of course. Despite his flaws as a man, he was saying things that no one else dared to say that were not only true but forced republicans to look at economic views, forced them to reckon with a way he looked at economics. I said that, wow, people dont buy the republican Economic Program actually. Howie youve told the story about 15 years ago in cnn you got a voicemail from him, too vulgar for air, what did you take from him . Hes vulgar, thats obviously not a departure from me, hes hilarious, he can be thinskin and hes interesting. Howie everybody will be asking you off the air, what did he say. Sot critics thought you were aggressive some young from teen vowing, vogue and you took her on for criticism and she called you a bully. Is there a line about being aggressive and being too rough with the guest . I would be timid with a lot of guests who werent there to push political views on other people but the second youre out there spousing views and demanding people conform to your views, i think, i have a right to press you and ask you to explain your views. Thats all i was doing to her. I was treating her like an adult. She didnt care for that and started yelling at me but i didnt treat her any differently than i treat anybody else that wrote what she wrote. A lot of people i know dislike trump and more legitimate to disagree with trump which i do myself sometimes. I didnt think she was explaining herself. Howie you had a show in nbc, you were on cross fire when you got into it with john stewart. I dont know, i mean, i think maybe my one advantage is i have failed in the past and i would recommend failure to anyone. Howie how so . Winning doesnt teach you anything. It tells you whatever youre doing work, keep doing it. Exactly. Failure forces you to assess yourself in a way that nothing else does and real failure, like your neighbors and you pull into driveway anight. Youre ashamed. I learned a lot about my own shortcomings, im a much more selfaware person than i was, thats for sure. Howie i can see just in the exchange. Are you feeling the pressure . I mean, i guess. Im a pretty small thinker to be totally honest. If i thought about a lot, wow, im anchoring the 9 00 p. M. Whats the show tonight. What am i going to ask. As long as you keep thinking about that every single night, lets make the best show we can Tucker Carlson, great to see you. Thank you. Howie tucker will be on at 9 00. Can megyn kelly succeed in different formats later. Is it fair to call the President Elect a liar howie as we were saying, it was front news this week when megyn kelly decided to leave, here is what megyn said on the kelly file about feeling a rapport with her audience. That after all is why we believe here we are, human connection. The truth is, i need more of that in my life and in particular when it comes to my children who are 7, 5 and 3. So i will be leaving fox news at the weeks end and starting a new adventure. Joining us now Media Reporter from the hill. Joe, lets start with the obvious. Megyn kelly was a huge star here. Number two show on cable. Impact on fox, fox, i compare to the university of Alabama Football Program this week because alabama keeps playing for championships every year yet they are graduating players and going to the nfl. I looked at the two examples. Glenn beck leaves, highly rated host, fox takes off their bench five people and puts them around the table and say talk about stuff, highly rated show, same thing with greta, she leaves 7 00 oclock, Tucker Carlson comes, if you compare them year over year. I think the bottom line, howie, fox bus not rebuild, it reloads and thats scary if youre a competitors. Howie right. Starting a show at msnbc. Some people say that megyn kelly left for money. I believe shes taking somewhat less money to go to nbc. A lot of this was schedule in her life and the three kids you heard her mention. Tucker carlson, hes only had his own show here for a few weeks. He gets a 9 00 p. M. Slot, how do you see that looking out . If youre looking at december ratings, we have never seen, howie, a debut like Tucker Carlson has had for his show. Not just ratings which have been off the charts, but also it seems like every day im seeing a viral video of a segment that he does the night before debating somebody. Tucker certainly is going to be just fine and to your point about megyn, youre exactly right, this is about your children. This is why you leave prime time for daytime for less money. We have never seen at the top of her career and i read her Book Cover To cover. I interviewed her a couple of weeks ago. She wanted to be there when her kids were getting home from school, doing their homework and tuck them into bed at night and thats why you take less money. She will be starting a die time talk show which has been graveyard period for successful journalists, how do you see her fairing . Exactly. Anderson cooper has a show in daytime to do a talk show like megyn is going to try to do. It fails in two hours. This is in the an apples to apples comparison. Megyn in her 30s leaves a corporate lawyer and years later becomes one of the most watched people on television. I wouldnt bet against her if her own personal history is any indication. Howie starting a news magazine show, sunday night is 60 minutes, tough Competition Head to head. Yeah, 60 minutes has been around for years. All right, i put it on later. Nbc has the number one rated show in sunday night football from september to january, where are you going to put that show . Certainly Unanswered Questions as how nbc is going to utilize megyn kelly. Shes going to be in daytime. We dont know the time slot. We will find out exactly in september exactly. Howie i wish you all the best too, joe, and you probably fed Tucker Carlsons ego during our conversation. After the break, Wall Street Journal Editor jerry baker on taking slack for his approach of covering Donald Trumps misstatements. Later Joe Scarborough wants you to know he was not partying with donald trump on new years eve howie set off a big of furor on how it was covered inaccurate. It implying deliberate intent to mislead. Howie i spoke to the editor from new york. Thanks for having me. Howie you got coverage of accusing the President Elect a liar. You say in the Wall Street Journal you stand accused of imperilling the republican. How do you plea, sir . I thought i was going to be a fugitive from Media Justice for a while and i was wondering whether i should go and lie low. Thank you very much for your concern, i weathered it okay so far. Howie after dan called your remarks disturbing is the following, i will confess, it feels like being on the virtues of abstinance. Its a little bit rich to be honest with you to be criticized for Reporting Ethics specially Something Like this where im convinced we are doing the right thing but somebody who remembers had employment terminated by the network because he was involved in making up a story about president george w. Bush. So for me to be criticized by somebody like that, i take it with a pride. Howie story that couldnt be confirmed and cbs try today retrack. Editorial page has been tough on donald trump, has pointed out some statements that are inconsistent with the facts. Mass illegal voting, Birther Issue with president obama. And the paper describing it that way and explain the distinction. First of all, politics speak untruths all of the time. A lot of people speak untruths a lot of the time and we report that and so the right thing to do, i believe, is to say, when someone says something we report what they say, somebody as important as donald trump, the President Elect, which we reported and we measure what he says, examines what he says against the facts an we give an estimate as to whether or not as far as we can tell the statement is true. And donald trump has said things that arent true. Theres a difference that a person, a subject said something that was untrue and saying that they lied because lying is autoknow that somebody is lying you have to know state of knowledge and State Of Mind that they had deliberate to deceive. You may be able to infer a lot of what you think you know, when somebody says something is untrue. Muslims on the roofs of new jersey celebrating after 9 11, thats a much, much higher standard of proof. Howie do you think there would have been Media Criticism if you said something similar of Hillary Clinton if she won the election, what does this say about the medias mind set toward President Elect . Youre absolutely right, howie. Politicians lie all of the time. We didnt get criticism at all when president obama said if you like your Health Insurance plan you can keep your Health Insurance. We didnt describe that as a lie. It was untruth and we havent described things that donald trump said it was a lie. The answer what youre getting at is a large section of the media had decided that theres something specifically and uniquely threatening about donald trump that they actually have to take a posture of confrontation and opposition to him and they have they have to be in the arena and saying this man is a terrible threat to our freedoms and democracy and they have to be out there actually in a partisan way disagreeing with him. Howie great to have you on the show, thanks very much for joining us. Thanks, howie, thanks for having me. Howie scary story about the russians supposedly hacking our grid and joe scar bow row calls the reporter a liar for tweeting about his relationship pickckckck howie Washington Post with dramatic headline last week. Russian hackers hacked Electricity Grid but the story quickly short circuited. The danger about relying on anonymous resource. 90 minutes after discovery of code associated with Russian Hackers that posed vulnerability for americas electric grid, the utility said only a single line of code was found at one laptop, not connected to the grid. The next day ran note but this week retracted the entire story in a piece headline, russian government hackers do not appear to have targeted vermont utility. People close to the investigation, internal discussions to make sure something similar did you want happen again. Bad week for the Washington Post. Cover splash on the womens march plan to go protest trumps inauguration and uses University Symbol for the male gender. The editors need their eyesight checked . Joe scarborough had dinner with donald trump last week and met with President Elect maralago as new Years Eve Party was getting underway. Morning joe partied with trump, called him a liar and explained on the air that they didnt get dress up, it was just a 20minute meeting seeking an interview. Judging from the response that i get every time i meet with anybody associated with him, no journalist have ever done this before. 60 minutes has ever gone to a president or New York Times. We know ben bradley ever did. Im not going to let them lie because they have been lying for a year or so. You two meet the President Elect when the staff says you can meet the President Elect. Howie thats true. Every president holds off the record chats, reagan, obama, this is only controversial because its trump. Im glad they patched things up. Trump even went over on friday and met with Vanity Fair Carter who has been mocking him since Spying Magazines in the 80s this after tweeting, no talent, will be out. Thats it for this edition of mediabuss, im howard kurtz. Let us know what you think. Stick to the media questions, comments, mediabuzz at foxnews. Com. Continue the conversation on twitter and do you know, i do a