There is no question these comments are racist. This is so abnormal. This is a freak show. Is this offensive . Of course it is. But this doesnt move the needle at all. Howie is it fair for commentators to denounce those comments as racist. An explosive wall street journal article about the president that is generating strong denials. The media are swooning over oprah for president. Oprahs speech is fueling talk of a president ial run. She is an impressive woman, it was an impressive speech. I dont think her position has changed. I dont. I was talking to her very late last night. I do think she is intrigued by the idea. Howie why are the pundits giving so much attention to such a farfetched scenario. Why steve bannon lost his media platform. Ill be making a personal announcement about my latest prong. This is mediabuzz. Reports that President Trump privately told members of congress he warrants to limit immigration from hate tee and some african nations. The president made a mistake in making those comments, no question. I have known him for 30 years, i know him and like him, but this is a new low. Howie the president tweeted the next day while he used tough language during the meeting about the dreamers, this was not the language used. But dick durbin said it was the language. Joining us, mollie hemingway, susan ferrechio, and marie harf. Molly, the s has hit the fan over these comments. Mollie when you use this type of language and the president chooses to be this vulgar with alarming regularity, its going to be news. But the media failed to explain the context of his remarks. They didnt have any curiosity about why dick durbin was leaking this. And mostly they were using this like they have used so many discussions about immigration. That is to silence people to werent to change immigration to a meritbased system. Thats frustrating for people who are interested in this debate. Howie this was a slur. And some republicans have criticized it. Jason johnson said trump is a white supremacist, a terrorist sympathizer and a danger to nonwhites. Is this over the top . Marie most of of the outrage is well placed. This fits into a pattern of comments he made, whether its after charlottesville or when he took out the full page ad about the central park five. He has a long history of wading into discussions about race and using racially charged language. That plays into how its being covered today. Based on everything he has done over decades. Howie many politicians use bad language in private. He said dont do stupid s in foreign policy. Would the coverage have been the same if he had said lousy third world countries. Absolutely. Because everybody started to put the s word up without the asterisk. They want to convey a message that the president is such a racist and degenerate that they have to put the word on the screen. The fcc regulated stations putting up the word thank violation of the regulations. Howie fox hasnt been using it. I think it should be used sparingly. I think its one of those words thats important to understanding even though some people find it offensive. In the past you have had liberal commentators saying hes a racist. You have jim acosta and Andrea Mitchell almost stating it as fact. Mollie i dont know what they were thinking because there were so many leaps of logic. There was some dispute about the precise nature of the term. And they said ergo hes racist. And they said the use of the term chain immigration is racist. Thats just the term thats used. I think people know that and they dispute they need to make the case and there is no need to assert as fact when there is plenty to talk about that is fact. Marie you saw them going back to when he was sued for Racial Discrimination in housing in new york. He went after the american judge calling mexicans racist. Its hard to know whats in peoples hearts so im always cautious saying he has feeling of this. You cant know that. But he made statements White Supremacists think hes on their side. Mollie we have a discussion in this country about whether we should change our immigration policy. When President Trump said he wanted to change temporary status and people said you cant send people back to those hell holes. But when he says this, thats racist. Howie there were a number of commentators on the right the president appeared willing to negotiate some kind of compromise with democrats on legalizing the Dreamers Program in exchange for turning the border wall. Lets take a brief look at what some of them had to say. Fit was a completely different donald trump from the one we watched on the campaign trail two years ago. So what was the point of running for president. This was a disaster. The lowest day of his presidency. If he thinks hes going to get great press by giving the left everything they want. Howie President Trump got a lot of praise for having that session, but those who have supported him were very critical. Susan the president speaks two ways. On one hand he wants to make a deal and work with democrats. But on the other hand he wants the tough Border Security he promised. He made the Major Campaign promise. The big beautiful wall. He tries to negotiate with democrats. Is he going to have a deal or the very things he promised . Howie some of the conservative commentators acted like this was a betrayal when in fact he was trying to negotiate for what he also wants on this wall with mexico. Mollie these are much more interesting angles for the media to explore. How his base is worried he will sell them out. Or dick durbin leaking. Marie thats what some conservative republicans were worried about during the primary. Hes a lifelong democrat who potentially could cut deals with chuck and nancy. At the end of the day governing is actually about. Howie people on both sides hate compromise. The president at a press availability had something to say about the state of the nations libel laws. President trump our current libel laws are a sham and disgrace and do not represent American Values or american fairness. You cant say things that are knowingly false. And be able to smile as money pours into your bank account. Mollie criticism of the press is perfectly fine. He didnt say anything specific enough to be totally alarmed by. Threatening legal action because you dont like the coverage you are getting. It violates the spirit of press freedom. And nobody has benefited more from the lax laws on slander than donald trump. He says ted cruzs father was involved in the assassination of jfk. Howie you cant publish statements with malice. Marie donald trump has told a Record Number of falsehoods going back to the Barack Obama Birther stuff which many people saw as the way he got into politics. When he doesnt like legal stories he threatens legal action. I think hes just trolling the media. Howie he sued an author from the New York Times saying he wasnt worth as much money as he claimed. He sued a Chicago Tribune critic for saying trump tower was ugly. Susan this is just the way he engages with the press. He hes in an adversarial relationship with the media. But he also needs the media, which explains wolff the author into the white house. Howie is the media openly promoting oprah, the Television Icon for president. A story about an alleged payment before the election generates a spate of strong denials. Running a Small Business is demanding. And thats why Small Business owners need more. Like internet thats up to the challenge. The gigspeed network from comcast business gives you more. With speeds up to 20 times faster than the average. That means powering more devices, more video conferencing, and more downloads in seconds, not minutes. Get fast internet and add phone and tv for only 34. 90 more per month. Comcast is building americas largest gigspeed network to give Small Businesses more. Call 18005016000 today. Howie the wall street journal is reporting Donald Trumps lawyer weeks before the election raised a payment to a former porn star on an agreement she not go public with an alleged sexual encounter . 2006. There have been a spate of denials. If the white house says these are old recycled reports that were strongly denied before the election. While michael cohn wont address the story specifically, he says its not true. She says rumors that i received hush money from donald trump are completely false. Mollie the wall street journal asserted something is true but provided zero evidence to that fact. Howie it says money went to her through her employer. Mollie why are they so certain given both parties deny and everybody quoted on the record deny it. Howie we have the times interviewing jake wiseberg saying he got preelection daniels, according to these Text Messages she had an affair with donald trump in 2006, and he was late in paying her. Now she denies it. No the editor said the reason they didnt run with the story was because she couldnt verify it. Thats not the best sourcing for the original claim. Howie the Text Messages seem like evidence to me. But the slate reporter says she was demanding money. The top two newspapers in the country reporting these sense sayingsal allegations. Any other president , this might be a major story. But this is President Trump. This came baked in. He wasnt harry truman. He was a thrice married businessman in from queens. The story is not new. It came out november 6, 2016. The beginnings of this are not new. Howie given the journal did report this just before the election. Daniel was supposed to tell her story on Good Morning America but all that fell through. How much will people care about this . Marie i am not sure this moves the needle in terms of Public Perception of him. Still i think its a store why it public deserves to see and hear about. Can you imagine if this was barack obama, what the News Coverage would be like . Yes, she denied it, but its reported as part of her settlement, she has to deny it. I dont think it will move the needle but she has to deny it. Mollie the normalization of anonymous sourcing is not good for the industry and thats something journalists should care about because donald trump wont always be here to excuse. Howie the level of distrust in the media is so great susan readers have a right to know. The problem with anonymous sourcing, when you have an anonymous source, you dont know their agenda. Howie the readers dont know. And you are supposed to trust the journalists filter. Howie after what bill clinton did in office. If it happened in 2006 does not sound like a media bombshell, fit happened. Marie there are a lot of people who believe every anonymous source in the administration i worked in because it fits into their world view. We have to have reporters who do their jobs well and avaluate the anonymous sources. But there has to be a place for them in our media landscape and we shouldnt discount everything because there is not a name attached to it. Howie . Ahead, actor Michael Douglas is denying Sexual Harassment allegations even before they are published. Millions of you are online right now, searching one topic. That will generate over 600 million results. And if youve been diagnosed with cancer, searching for answers like where to treat, can feel even more overwhelming. So start your search with a specialist at Cancer Treatment centers of america. Start with teams of Cancer Treatment experts under one roof. Start where specialists use advanced Genomic Testing to guide precision Cancer Treatment. That may lead to targeted therapies and more treatment options. Start where theres a commitment to analyzing the latest research and conducting clinical trialsto help each patient get the personalized cancer care they deserve. Start at one of the Cancer Treatment centers of america hospitals near you. The evolution of cancer care is here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com experts Appointments Available now. Howie i have been covering donald trump since the day he came down that golden escalator two years ago. But really longer than that when i first interviewed the donald in the ain the 80s. The reporting on President Trump has been overwelkingly negative and at times outright hostile. The president s attacks on the press have been just as harsh. Sometimes hitting back against unfair attacks and sometimes stepping over the line. I have spent a lot of time writing a book about this. Its called media madness. It wasnt an easy book to write. Im a lifelong journalist. I criticize the business all the time as you know. But im not a knee jerk media barber. My fear is organized journalism has badly lost its way in the trump era. Many news organizations decided during the campaign that trump had to be held to a different standard, and that means taking a stand that has often meant a biased approach that alienated many consequence and d many cd independents. How they fight with each other and play the leaking game and sometimes undermine their boss and each other its an allout war between the president and the press thats further dividing a very polarized country. Coming up, the pundits are pumped up over oprah for president. Though she doesnt seem to be running. Well look at fallout as steve [narrator] introducing a breakthrough in hearing aid technology. Presenting the all new eargo plus. 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Eargo, hear life to the fullest. Howie Oprah Winfrey didnt just talk about victims of sexual conducted, she praised the media. We all note press is under siege, but we also know its their dedication to uncovering the absolute truth that keeps us from turning a blind eye to corruption and injustice. Howie the press awarded the favor by practically drafting her into the 200 president ial campaign. My head is going to explode. Will Oprah Winfrey actually run for president . In l. A. Christina been and tony. What explain. This will totally shock you, but celebrity sells. Famous names. People buy papers. She is not the first famous media star thought to be running for president. Tom brokaw was asked to run, water cronkite was floated as a possible Vice President ial candidate with George Mcgovern in 1972. Many years later cronkite said yes he would have done it. And other journalists have run and won for seats in congress. Some of them served reasonably well. This is about the nexus of fame and power. Of course, they are going to be considered. Howie oprah told Bloomberg News backstage she had no plans to run. Her friend gail king said maybe shell run. One of the problems with some of the covering, it didnt get into the substance. Look at Oprah Winfreys campaign donations. She gave to arnold schwarzenegger. She has given money to cory booker who could run in 2020. She has given a lot of money to the dnc and the obama campaign. He having a look at this could be interesting. Has she voted in every election. What did the polls say . There was a poll that said she would defeat President Trump 5039 in 2020. But thats obviously an early stage. Howie its meaningless because no one has been attacking her. And there are no stories about whats her position on arming the syrian rebels. I think those early polls are like cotton candy. I get it, celebrity sells. There is a history of celebrities encouraging speculation because it builds the brand without having to dirty your hand. Lynn i think thats true. I think in her speech it was a reminder of the elegance and eloquence missing in the national discourse. There was a kind of a yearning for some moral leadership. Now, having said that, i dont believe that she is actually thinking of running. I want to read you something from an interview i did with oprah in 2010 from a cover story from parade magazine. I said would you ever run for office . She said nope. I said because . She said because i know my lane and i drive well in my lane. I know she knows how to put on the brakes. Howie there was a tweet from nbc that said nothing but respect for our future president , a picture of Oprah Winfrey. It took 12 hours to delete. Then nbc had an explanation that it was a shadowy third party. Christina our readers were very interested in this story. She is one of the most of globally known people in america. Just to lynns point, i covered her in three different states when she was campaigning for barack obama in 2007 and 2008. She went from iowa to South Carolina and New Hampshire and had different messages in each. And really made clear she is not clear in politics. Even obama made the joke when somebody shouted from the crowd that she should be his running mate. Celebrities could make a president , because look at President Trump. Howie there is a story about questionable medical treatment she backed in the past. So thats just a taste of what would happen. Lynn i think the bottom line on her is she is a way too smart to run. Harris we put up the Time Magazine cover this week, hair on fire. What do you make of all the incredible coverage of the s hole comment and do you think its the right amount or somewhat overdone . Continue requiroverdone . Christina it was an extraordinary moment. For us representing the left and the west and california, those comments hit home for people in a negative way. People wanted to read about them in context. Howie lynn sherr . Lynn there has been an almost universal agreement on the part of journalists to print the word exactly as it was. But dont put it in 36 point halfinch high head lines. That was too much for readers. You cant let your children watch tv or read the news anymore. Howie ahead on mediabuzz. The hollywood harassment cases keep on playing out at the press. Ancestrydna makes over 10 million new family connections, every day. Thats more ways to discover new relatives. People who share your dna. And maybe a whole lot more. Order your kit at ancestrydna. Com even when nothing else is. Keep her receipts tidy, brand vo snap and sort your expenses with quickbooks and find, on average, 4,340 in tax savings. Quickbooks. Backing you. Howie President Trump and Top White House officials constantly attacking sloppy steve over his Harsh Criticism of the white house. Steve bannon is done at breitbart. Steve bannon is out of the job tonight. Two jobs. The evil genius of the Trump White House no longer works in the white house, no longer works anywhere. Hes a man who still views himself as a great revolutionary, but he finds himself without a media vehicle, not a platform or major donors. Howie he turned into a major force on the right after the trump campaign. One of his top backers Rebecca Mercer wrote a letter distancing herself from his views. Does it seem inevitable that breitbart and siriusxm radio would part company after the repeated denuns wases denun. He was going to be removed. The problem is steve bannon does believe in certain things. He believes there should be a trade war with china. He believes we should be replacing republican establishment figures with more insurgents. And donald trump has been persuade to do things that are more expedient and persuading china to help us isolate north korea. Howie sources close to bannon are telling me its not that breitbart booted him. But bannons own lawyer said he had to choose between media and politics. Giving speeches and raising money for candidates. Its possible every article by breitbart could be considered an inkind contribution. He was a real force after he left the white house using breitbart as a platform. In politics to you think he can regain that status . If you ever had a conversation with him, hes an infectious personality. I would be surprised if he works his way back into the president s good graces. The people around the president are probably more protective of the president and his relationship with steve bannon. He will be an Insurgent Force until hes about to retire. Howie my sources telling me hes out there doing political meeting and the war of words with President Trump is not hurting raising money. Where does this leave breitbart . Breitbart hasnt made any substantive comment on bannons departure. Before it has backed the president on certain issues. Where does that leave the website. Bannons removal from the site howie unless President Trump didnt do something that breitbart didnt like. Steve bannon attempts to help donald trump get back on the bannon agenda is what resulted in his removal from the white house. He went rogue and told reporters we should be isolated china, not working with china. His idea of helping lost a seat in alabama. Howie he wasnt solely responsible for the loss. Do you see breitbart having a future post bannon . It will be a voice for donald trump. But to the extent that donald trump wont be president forever, it seems like a bad bet. Howie actor james franco hits the latenight circuits denying Sexual Harassment. Howie a report in the Los Angeles Times alleged james franco once exposed himself in a car and tried to push her head down. And during the Golden Globes there was a tweet from ali s shrk sheedy. I have no idea why she was upset. She took the tweet down. Howie james franco goes on colbert an offers vague denials. I dont get strategy. Could the host have pressed him more firmly . Its not what Stephen Colbert and seth myers do. Its a jump to go from host to interrogator. Franco is in a delicate place because its walking a tightrope. He needs to be respectful of the times up, metoo moment we are in. And he has to be in the public face because hes campaigning for an oscar. His film the disaster artist is out. He will be asked these questions time and time again. Howie Michael Douglas went public with the hollywood website deadline with an emotional denial of allegations made by a former employee that he masturbated in front of her 32 years ago. He says he was preempting a possible story by the hollywood reporter. What do you make of the Michael Douglas move here . Its a risky move. Because if he did engage in inappropriate behavior and misconduct with other women, having a Statement Like this could inspire them to speak out. He did seem to want to get ahead of the story. He picked an outlet i assume he perceived would be friendly to him. And tried to kind of control the narrative. Control his destiny. Howie so many of these hollywood cases, are the media having a burnout and not getting as much coverage . Or is it that the latest allegations are not on the same level . I would say the franco allegations do not rise to the level the weinstein allegations do, a criminal level. I am not sure there is a bit of burnout, if you watched the Golden Globes. Clearly women in the film and Television Industry feel motivated to speak out. They feel this is an important moment and they feel certain this will lead to substantive change. Howie james rosen, foxs chief worse yentd left just before the holidays. There were allegations he made sexual to have twice kid a reporter in an elevator. Rosen is bound by contract not to comment. If. Achenbach has been u us personnd by the post for inappropriate conduct. He apologize to the women and he apologize to the women and acknowledges their courage. Ooooooh snap every truck guy has their own way of conveying powerful. Yeeaaahhh boy. Kind of looks like a monster coming to eat ya. Holy smokes. That is awesome. Strong. You got the basic, and you got the beefy. I just think it looks mean. Incredible. No way. Start your year off strong a new chevy truck. Get a total value of over 9,600 on this silverado all star when you finance with gm financial. Find new roads at your local chevy dealer. Howie chris ma these was getting ready to interview Hillary Clinton when according to footage leaked to new York Magazine he said this. Where is that bill cosby pill i brought with me. Howie matthews thought it was funny to joke about drugging and sexually assaulting the democratic nominee. He apologized, he said he deeply regrets it and hes sorry. John dickerson is joining cbs this morning to replace charlie rose. Im a transfer student here. Welcome to the new school, john dickerson. Howie hes a Natural Choice since his mother was cbss first female correspondent. We had a picture of your mom here since the show began. Howie the coroner time correspondent. Thats it for this edition of mediabuzz. Im howard kurtz. Lets continue the conversation howardkurtz. And facebook mediabuzz i have a hard time believing that it was somebody hit the button accidentally. I have been calling for President Trump so sit across the table from kim jong un to build this pathway towards denuclearization. Anger and outrage over the president s remarks. How do you egged a 71yearold man. [inaudible] we dont need them anymore, we can do better. Youre dam right, weve got this