morrison's book, beloved, leading to legislation by material that was vetoed by mcauliffe when he was governor. this is like every issue where each side accuses the other of playing politics when both camps are engaged in. there's reasons why the media seizes on issues like books, plenty of ordinary folks think they're important. i'm howard kurtz and this is media buzz. ♪ howie: ahead, journalist andrew sullivan joins us on media intolerance and the latest damaging disclosureses about facebook. when barack obama campaigned for terry mcauliffe, he dismissed the toni morrison book controversy as a conservative media creation. >> we don't have time to be wasting on these phony trumped-up culture wars, this fake outrage that right wing media pedaled to juice their ratings. >> let me tell you about how business works in tv, barack obama. fox news covers the culture war that you started because it's real news. so people come to fox to watch real news. howie: and the pundits pick sides over what liberals painted as a racially divisive issue you. >> the republicans have followed trump's lead, pouring high octane gasoline on cultural anxiety, weaponizing anything that makes white christians feel icky. >> even if it was a crumb -- clumsy, ineffective plea, it was how glenn youngkin decided to end his campaign nonetheless. the horrors, the horrors of toni morrison. >> i think it is so potent, democrat or republican, when parents are talking about what their kids are learning inless schools that it's a big issue, culture war or not. howie: joining us to analyze the coverage, emily jachinsky, culture editor and in new york, tara palmeri, co-author of politico's playbook. liberal pundits say conservatives hype up this culture war. >> i think it's the most misunderstood thing in politics, that republicans and democrats are almost always on defense. it is true. and you wrote this earlier this week, that nobody is choosing to opt out of the culture war, completely true. represents see this as an issue they need to lean too. howie: why on defense? >> it's always the case that they're responding to something that progressives by definition of the phrase progressive are trying to change. in virginia thats was policy 8040, in louden county public schools that took place over transgender bathrooms and facilities and pronouns. republicans were he responding to the issue of books. they were he responding to them and that was an issue that the left was trying to change. republicans are responding to it. they're leaning into it, that's true. howie: do you think the media on the right, some of them, promote the culture war battles and don't liberal media outlets pup. back pretty -- punch back pretty hard? >> they do. i think the thing about the culture wars, we say they're background noise but they create feelings among americans, feeling like culture is changing for some people, others wanting it to change. it has a lot of impact on americans day to he day in their lives, it becomes policy. culture eventually becomes policy. i think to ignore the culture war, the resistance to change is to ignore what would actually become policy and what is already becoming policy. so as journalists we do have to continue to cover it. howie: i think that's a great point that we shouldn't just be dismiss i've about it. glenn youngkin says he's not for banning books. this morning, terry mcauliffe went on meet the press and state book banning and chuck todd says the legislation allows parents to opt out of the material. you've got liberal commentators saying this is racist, you're didn't issing toni morrison, is the coverage fair? >> not at. republicans use the possessive form of their racial culture form, i've seen the washington post say republicans the seizing on this. it's not fair. in this case it was a policy thats was fairly common in the state of virginia that republicans just said parents should have some choice and so i think to pin that on as a banning of the toni morrison book, it's a great example of how that's a line for terry mcauliffe that he thinks will do well and the dnc thinks will do well and the media echos the narrative. it's not a fair fair you testify. fair narrative.howie: on the fu have conservative pundits saying terry mcauliffe doesn't think parents should have a right to help make decisions about their children's education. is that coverage fair, given mcauliffe's past statements on the matter? >> i think it is accurate because he is saying we should leave it to the school boards and some people would agree that individual parents should decide what their children can read and not read. it is pretty cut-and-dry. that is what he said. he said that let's leave it to a higher body and some people want autonomy over what their children are reading. he can slice it and dice it. every time he's asked about it, he comes back to the same point. howie: the exact quote is i don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach. that obviously would be popular in some places and not popular in others. emily, what about the coverage by this stunt the other day, the lincoln project, this is the anti-trump group that paid themselves big salaries and one of their former members sexually preyed on more than 20 young men. they had -- if you're not familiar with this, they sent a group of torch bearing fake white nationalists to a young kin event in charlottesville to make a point. i see virtually no criticism of this in the mainstream media, even though the mcauliffe campaign denounced it. >> it was baffling. i've been baffled by the silence on this. this would be treated as a major right wing disinformation operation had it happened in the other direction and a very cynical exploitation of racial politics. that's what this was. it's not surprising coming from the lincoln project. the media would just be diving into this all over it, would be splashed across everywhere and it's been virtually nothing. howie: the washington post, this is a hometown race in the state of virginia, commonwealth, i should say, ran a story inside the metro section. tara, quick thought on that. >> i think it's probably -- it probablied should have been on the front page, not the metro section. a lot of journalists feel horrified about what happened. that's a front page story to stage that kind of spectacle. it's racial historyingerring. i don't know how you get -- racial historyingerring. i don't know how you -- racially triggering. howie: i don't understand what it was supposed to accomplish. obviously this would be found out and that becomes the controversy. what about the fact that we have this every four years, the virginia and new jersey governor's races, an off year, political reporters need something to do. there's been weeks of punditry about what the outcome of this means. will the media take away that the culture wars, since that's where we started, either works or it doesn't. >> i think that's probably the only extent to which this race is nationally representative at all is how the culture war plays out as various sides dig into their trenches. i think that may be a national microcosm. but there's parachuting of journalists from so many states and they try to nationalize races for the sake of ratings and coverage. there's so many local politics. we've seen that in virginia many there's something in this case about if glenn youngkin is able to keep the margin closer than it should be or if he's able to take the race, then we will see because of the way flips have happened and voters say they're voting for education, independent voters, that's a national message. howie: i almost always say all politics is local. but in this case, is it fair to talk about the impact on national politics because has the race in virginia been nationalized especially since partially courtesy of the mead why and par courtesy of the p candidates, donald trump has played and outsize role. >> back in 2009 when virginia, a purple state, went red in the governor's office, it led to a sweeping change in the congress and it's seen as a referendum on joe biden. i don't know how you can't not look at that especially when terry mcauliffe him sed said that joe biden is not popular here. he's not using the president to campaign. this is a referendum joe biden and had his policy. that's why the media is clinging to the story. we saw new poll numbers today that a joe biden's approval ratings are at 42%. i would say we're paying close attention but it's cliche but virginia is a bellwether state and we have to pay attention of to it and it will define whether the democrats have the momentum to pass their agenda or not or whether the loss pushes the agenda forward. i would say that this is a race to pay attention to and the media is doing the right thing by paying attention. howie: on that point, we did have as we showed earlier joe biden barack obama campaigning for mcauliffe. while trump endorsed youngkin, he has not appeared for him. >> to your point, all politics is local and virginia is a very unique state because of the way the beltway people live in northern virginia and it's a huge state with different cultures. howie: should the media make trump an issue or is it both sides are making trump an issue. >> i think it's very fair that media makes trump -- that sees some extent of a referendum on trump on this. you're trying to have a republican candidate win in what is a blue state. howie: six months ago people living inside the beltway didn't know who youngkin was. when we come back, andrew cuomo charged with a sex crime. and later, andrew sullivan on the growing crisis in facebook. it's very meta. ♪ well the sun is shining and the grass is green ♪ ♪ i'm way ahead of schedule with my trusty team ♪ ♪ there's heather on the hedges ♪ ♪ and kenny on the koi ♪ ♪ and your truck's been demolished by the peterson boy ♪ ♪ yes -- ♪ wait, what was that? timber... [ sighs heavily ] when owning a small business gets real, progressive helps protect what you've built with affordable coverage. howie: first it was breaking fuse only on msnbc, a criminal charge against andrew cuomo. then the opening times union said the charge had been filed erroneously. then it was confirmed. long after news outlets disclosed the claims of sexual hairsment two months after a complaint was filed, accusing him of groping her. >> i exactly remember looking down, seeing his hand which is a large hand, thinking to myself oh, my god, this is happening. howie: the former new york governor has been charged with forcible sexual misconduct. his spokeswoman said cuomo pfeffer you assaulted anyone. emily, most of the media ignored on minimized the allegations when they first surfaced. now he is facing a criminal charge. >> local media did the heavy living while national media was taking a back seat to local media. i think some of that has to do with the power that the cuomo press operation, the pr operation has on the national media and that's a statement on the national media sort of compliance with he those operations in and of itself. howie: tara, in fairness, the new york times, cbs and the opening times union were aggressive from the outset, investigating and finding these you accusers. what's your take on the rather restrained or of limited coverage right now? >> i would say it's because he's a former governor right now, it's a misdemeanor charge, not to minimize it but i would say that's part of it. but that's not the right way to look at it because based on my reporting on andrew cuomo, i used to cover him at the new york post and the reporting that i've gathered now, he has $18 million in a war chest that he plans to use to be political and influential in the state, whether going after political enemies or running again. in his first hire after resigning from office, he hired a pr person and what does that tell sunny he's very eager -- tell you? he's very eager in reshaping his image and bringing himself back into the political fold. he left really non-apologetic. he seems to think there is a a future. if we give him a pass this time in the media, that means he has a chance to come back with very few people remembering that he was in fact charged with a sex crime. howie: well, cuomo apologized for certain things. he continued to insist he never touched anybody or any of the serious allegations. less p than three months ago he was the most prominent democratic governor in the country, hailed for his covid briefings, he won an emmy. when we say he's just a former governor, if this kind of charge was brought against a former governor, ron de santis, for example, you think this would be a half day story. >> absolutely not. these are graphic allegations. there's a woman on the record that talked on the camera about it. what she is accusing him of having done is a terrible thing. it's amazing how little interest there is, given the news value of the story, even as a former governor. the point that was made is a smart one. he is trying to come back. he made all of the sort of signals that he's coming back. that gives the sorry even more news value because he's trying to continue to throw his weight around in american politics so the question of his character is completely relevant. howie: howie: you know, msnbc's joy reed and chris hayes couldn't find one minute on their prime time shows to mention this charge against former governor cuomo. i couldn't find a single mention the next morning on the washington post home page, scrolling down to the bottom, there was a story in the print edition. i wonder if the media lost interest us because you say cuomo is old news or whether there's a tendency to move on because they're uncomfortable with the story. >> i mean, he was a rising star. that makes the story even more consequential in my opinion. he had this potential people talked about him as as a potential presidential candidate. he was the bright shining light of the democratic party. so to completely forget about him right now seems like an oversight and the comeback is real. i mean, like i said, he has $18 million to be influential. so he is an influential player in politics the and just because he has fallen, he's he's not letting himself stay down for too long. howie: he's entitled to the resumption of innocence if this -- presumption of innocence if it goes to a courtroom. he called the sheriff who brought the charge a cowboy sheriff who is playing politics. he said he doesn't know how it leaked. there are questions of new york and albany politics swirling around a this. thank you for a very good conversation, tara palmeri and emily jachinsky. up next, the press touted a big budget deal for president biden before he went to europe but it quickly fell apart. did journalists get played here? 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(woman) yeah, y-you did. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ howie: the washington post was upbeat saying president biden could be marking a potential breakthrough after months of lent this negotiations and msnbc was really excited. >> so what we expect from the president today is to detail this new framework after months of negotiationses that he thinks will be able to papas the senate and the house. >> there's no question this is a massive deal. howie: there was skepticism on cnn and fox news. >> this is a huge morning right now for joe biden, the president of the united states, who is laying it all on the line in the next hour. >> we saw this all come to a head last night an fizzle out. it could happen again today. .howie: some democrats were still opposing biden's compromise. joining us now from glasgow is correspondent jacqui heinrich. what was it like when the white house was touting that biden had this new framework and all the democrats were expected to be on board and we hadn't even seen the thing. >> reporter: it was a little different than last month, howard, because the last time this all played out, the white house was not the one who released the framework. they had that release coming from the white house, the t be president going to the hill to sell his plan, delivering an address to the country. it did feel like the white house wanted this to happen more than last month when it all sort of fizzled out and the president said, you know, we don't want to have artificial time lines, we want to get it done right. more energy this time but we saw the same thing happened, the progressives staved off a vote on the bill. it happened through the chief of staff ron klain and shined a light on how cozy their relationship is, the white house is framing this now in a different way. they're saying since the progressives have endorsed the framework, that now biden can go to the 26 with democrats in agreement. i think that's the cart before the horse on that. howie: let me jump in and ask you. since we've been through this so many times, nancy pelosi trying to schedule a vote but she can't get a vote, the progressives at odd with joe manchin and kyrsten sinema. did you say i better be cautious here, i better be kept at this -- skeptical, eve though the white house was talking this up. >> absolutely. the progressives have been clear the entire time on what their demands are. they have not budged. they've held together. and so i think that you have to really take that into consideration no matter what you're hearing from the white house. until you hear this sounds great, let's do it today, probably isn't going to happen. howie: i'm always kept at this call of the framework or the -- skeptical of the framework or the blueprint. biden has had to cut the original $3.5 trillion measure in half. at what point do the media say this is kind of disarray and the president is having trouble influencing his own party? >> well, i think it's clear the president is having trouble influencing his own party and i think they're trying to counter that today, you saw the energy secretary, granholm, come out and say because of progressives having endorsed this package after getting assurances that the things were stripped out the white house will try down the line, he's saying the president can meet with foreign leaders and say he has agreement among his party on these issues. howie: artificial deadline as you said. look, they might get the deal -- >> they haven't ruled on immigration. howie: they might get the deal this week. we have been through this a lot of time. that's why i think skepticism is warranted by journalists. jacqui heinrich, thanks for taking the time out from a busy day to join us. next on media buzz, andrew sullivan on the mess at facebook dave chapelle and woke journalism. ance, it was no cost to them. >> woman: really? >> tech: that's service the way you need it. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ wow... that's so nice! is that a photo of tepechitlan? yeah! the gift of ancestry®, is a walk through your history. do you remember who this is? it's a gift that surprises you, moves you, and bonds you. ...papa? i can see the nose and everything. she was the original strong woman. i know. this holiday, give the gift of family. give the gift of ancestry®. ♪ (man) i've made progress with my mental health. so when i started having unintentional body movements called tardive dyskinesia... ... i ignored them. but when the movements in my hands and feet started throwing me off at work... i finally had to say, 'it's not ok.' it was time to talk to my doctor about austedo. she said that austedo helps reduce td movements in adults... ...while i continue with most of my mental health medications. 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(man) talk to your doctor about austedo... it's time to treat td. td is not ok. visit askforaustedo.com howie: facebook now called meta in the most bizarre name change ever has been hit by a series of damaging disclosures. the washington post says mark zuckerberg's company tweaked the secret formula to value emotional emojis five times as much as a simple like. that according to internal documents caused more polarizing posts to flood into the news feed of millions of users. i spoke with andrew sullivan, author of the new book, out on a limb. andrew sullivan, welcome. >> thanks, howie, thanks for having me again. howie: there's been an avalanche of leaks from facebook showing the company pushes out consistent p tent that keeps using -- content that keeps users engaged and enraged. is facebook playing a core corrosive role in media and politics. >> it is. it's like phillip morris. facebook has been incredibly successful because it's selling an addictive drug. it's testing and tweaking it so you're more and more addicted to it. at some point, an organization that's doing that, is rotting the minds of a lot of people, taking up the hours of their day, increasing depression, anger, polarization, splitting up families, destroying a political culture, essentially that becomes such a big problem for pr for that company, they have to rename themselves. so phillip morris became altria. now you have meta. howie: you have internal documents showing that some wanted to kick breitbart out of the news beat. can you imagine that the liberal organization was not so reliable and we should question it. >> i can't. this is the trouble with some of these elite corporations and institutions. they don't really see that the are biased because they're so trapped in a bubble of their own making. what they think is common sense is actually for large numbers of people in america something that is really out on left field an that's a real problem. and it's a problem with being siloed in these big cities and places where especially when you have young generations of college educated people as part of the workforce, you become estranged from mainstream reality and that is a huge problem. howie: all the big media companies that that are feasting on these leaks, could this be a form of payback against its rival, facebook? >> well, i think if we're being honest, obviously to some extent. facebook is their great rival. it's killed their appetite in business. and big institutions are very enjust -- very envious of poachg readers. howie: quoting you, on the left mod rigs ais portrayed as a surrender to white nationalism and on the right white identity politics has overwhelmed moderate conservatism. are we screwed to use a technical term and how much are the media fueling this polarization. >> i think they like facebook are fueling it to some extent. i think the fact that you can be, forgive me, on fox news and never really hear a solid counter opinion and the same goes for msnbc and increasingly cnn which is can't watch, it's basically the same as msnbc now, means that you don't have a range of views for people to judge. and inevitably when you all agree around roughly the same stuff, there's no ratchet back. howie: dave chapelle is pushing back against critics within netflix, netflix is standing by him on the comedy special. here's what he had to say. >> even though the media frames this that it's me versus that community, it's not what it is. do not blame the lgbtq community for any of this. it's nothing to do with them, it's about corporate interest and what i can say and what i can not say. howie: andrew, you likeen this movement on the left to the moral majority of the '80s and '90s, moralizing pearl clutching, upsite censors. explain. >> it used to be the case religious right were protesting. i remember seeing the last tempt temptation of christ from a barrage of people that were objecting. the general attitude that we've got to prevent people from saying things, we've got to prevent cultural products that could possibly do harm even though we don't have direct evidence of that, is terribly counter productive for the creative industry. i don't believe, i absolutely do not believe that dave chapelle is in any way trans phobic, in that he hates or dislikes trans people. he's making an argument through a joke that there are some issues here that do have to be resolved and he's doing it in a funny way and he did it in a special that to my mind was deeply moving about the humanization of a trans person, a trans comedian, that was actually i think an extraordinary testament for his love and concern for trans people and how it's been distorted in this way is beyond me but i'm proud of netflix for standing up to the mob. howie: finally, you've taken a lot of flak over the years going back to your 1989 article for the then crazy idea of gay marriage. you had criticism from other gay people. you said you developed a thick skin. what about in the social media world, many people think it's true? >> yeah, i mean, what can you do about that? humans are wired for gossip. we're wired for stories that confirm our biases and if we have institutions like facebook or really propaganda media channels they're going to exploit that they're going to exploit. and it's up to you, the citizen, seems to me, to determine fact from fiction. that's not the role of the government to supervise. i don't want the federal government interfering in editorial decisions even by places like facebook. it's a very creepy behavior and it will suppress mainly right of center the us views, it may suppress left of center views. because of the culture of the institutions and the culture of the government. howie: thinking independently is the best advice. andrew sullivan, thank you very much for joining us. >> thanks, how youy. howie: after the break, the wall street journal editorial page punches back to media criticism that it shouldn't have published a letter by donald trump. my only interest. i also love cooking with heart-healthy, idaho potatoes. always look for the grown in idaho seal. people, with quickbooks live someone else will do your books for you. they'll even pair you with an expert bookkeeper like me, who knows your business. knows... your... business! expert bookkeepers who understand your business. intuit quickbooks live bookkeeping. i would have urges for chocolates and chips. those were my downfalls. thanks to golo, i wasn't craving those anymore. the weight was coming off, the energy was coming in, and now, i'm doing cartwheels. 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("this little light of mine") - [narrator] in the world's poorest places, they're shunned, outcast, living in pain. you can reach out and change the life of a suffering child right now. a surgery that takes as little as 45 minutes and your act of love can change a child's life forever. please call or visit operationsmile.org now. thousands of children are waiting. howie: the wall street journal editorial page is taking media flak for publishing a letter to the editor from donald trump filled with unproven claims about how the pennsylvania election was rigged, suggesting that over 70,000 late ballots were counted when they weren't. the journal responded, we think it's news when an ex-president wrote what he did, especially if claims are bananas. as for the media clerics, attempts to censor mr. trump have done nothing of to diminish his popularity. joining us to analyze this, susan ferrechio and maria harf, democratic strategist and fox news contributor. susan, the journal didn't vouch for the trump letter, simply published it as a response to an editorial, he yet got roundly denounced. >> i side with the wall street journal, saying if he's running for president potentially in 2024, he's a former president, it's pretty foolish to deny him the opportunity to have his say in an op-ed. and they didn't just allow him to have his say. they came back and not only did they criticize the critics who didn't want them to run the op-ed, they debunked what trump was arguing thoroughly in the article that they wrote following trump's op-ed. i think that covered it in a responsible way. and even if they hadn't done so, trump e-mail blasts his feelings on a daily basis to us in the media so we hear from him all the time. i think the journal made an excellent case. the last paragraph was the most part of the argument. it's hard to accept criticism for trump's argument when the media spent three years with the russian collusion hoax running daily. howie: going to get to that in a moment. i want to get marie to respond. maybe it would have played out if the journal did the fact checking and response the same day as opposed to the next day, what about the journal saying the media you attempts to censor donald trump. >> they shouldn't have waited 24 hours to fact check the piece. i think they were trying to get donald trump supporters to read their publication, get credibility with the trump part of the party which is a majority of the party today but then the next day saying don't worry, everyone, we will fact check it. everyone already read the first piece. many of those people who read the first piece are never going to read the fact checking. so i think that was irresponsible. the journal doesn't have to give him space to do this. they don't have some responsibility to print every lie that is submitted to them in any format. heading into the next presidential election, this is the key point. all of the media outlets need to figure out how they're going to cover trump if he run, when he lies repeatedly every single day. there's not two sides that are equally truthful to what he says. there's one that's not. howie: but if he's a candidate, you cover the hell out of him. that's how you cover him. trump called the follow-up journal editorial white wash. susan mentioned this, trump writing to the pulitzer board, saying the new york times and the washington post, you have to give back their 2018 prizes about russia, based on, quote, false reporting. the coverage was no more than a politically motivated farce which tried to spin a narrative. the former president knows the prizes will not be returned. why is he taking this shot? >> he's he's still defending his presidency which basically was under siege for the entire -- his entire term. and because people were accusing him of colludeing with the russians beginning with the campaign. we were covering trump as if he was an alleged russian agent part of the time. it was really ridiculous. he spent his entire term under siege and the pulitzer prize for the new york times reporting, you can't help spot the irony there. they cited the times for this deeply sourced reporting. a lot of it was an echo chamber and politically motivated. there's so much evidence of that now. about the point that you get the point out there, not the correction later. there's so much argument from people that believe trump colluded with the rushes chance because the coverage was so heavy in that regard. howie: the media did releaptlessly -- relentlessly hide the russian investigation. the independent council's investigation had to be covered. .>> of course, a lot of the allegations turned out to be true. we knows what paul manafort did, for example, mike flynn. i think this is donald trump gaslighting us. this politics is based on grievance politics, us versus them. he's taking on the mainstream media including the pulitzer board. this is part of his brand. and this is him trying to continue that form of politics that isn't about tackling the issues of today but it's about relitigating the last four years. howie: let me get a break. still to come, alec baldwin speaking about the horrible accidental shooting as the coverage turns much more critical. what do we want for dinner? burger... i want a sugar cookie... wait... i want a bucket of chicken... i want... ♪♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win. with directv stream, i can get live tv and on demand together. watch: serena williams... wonder woman.... serena... wonder woman... serena... wonder woman... ♪ ♪ ace. advantage! you cannot be serious! ♪ ♪ get your tv together with the best of live and on demand. introducing directv stream. ever wonder how san francisco became the greenest big city in america? just ask the employee owners of recology. we built the recycling system from the ground up, helping san francisco become the first city in the country to have a universal recycling and composting program for residents and businesses. but it all starts with you. let's keep making a differene together. howie: the coverage of alec baldwin's tragic accidental shooting on a movie set is to your knowledge more critical and the actor broke his silence yesterday by speaking to photographers. >> it's an active investigation in terms of a woman dying. she was my friend. she was my friend. there are incidental accidents on film sets from time to time. but nothing like this. this is a one in a zillion episode. >> i think the assistant director and armerrer are most at risk for criminal charges. so is alec baldwin. way he was an on location producer. >> three people had custody of the gun. you the armorer, you had dave hall, the assistant director and then you had alec baldwin, all three of those people. if they had ever handled guns before would have every chamber -- checked every chamber. howie: alec baldwin sounded anguished there. is it fair tore the pundits to rip him when he's an actor whos was handed what he thought was a prop gun and told cold gun. >> if he's supposed to check the chamber first, yes. i think what he said in the clip you played is interesting, like this is an outlier incident. when already we know you just from hearing some of the facts that that gun may have been used for target shooting earlier, there were all kinds of things going on on the set take that were irresponsible related to how guns were handled. sounds like he could be in more trouble given the fact that he is a producer on the set and he was in fact supposed to check the chamber before he fired it. i think it's perfectly fair, it's refreshing to hear people like joe scarborough at least try to say baldwin should potentially be responsible, instead of trying to cover up for him because of his stance on the nra and other things over the years. howie: the question is, who has the responsibility morally and legally. the coverage took a negative turn when david hall, we learned from news reports, had been fired two years ago from a movie where there were accidental gun charges. i'm not prejudging the case. shouldn't that be where the media scrutiny goes? >> i think that's right. and the la times and some other publications that focus on hollywood very closely were breaking stories almost immediately about some crew discomfort in the days leading up to this tragedy with safety on set, for example. you just mentioned another one of the stories and so i do think that this is an industry that has a lot of people focused on it right now. this is not about alec baldwin. this isn't about a person who has been a political sort of figure for lack of a better term. this is a about an industry that has a practice that does not appear to be entirely safe and i do think there is journalists really digging into this which is to the good. howie: and the fact that some of the crew walked off to protest working conditions fits into the larger puzzle. isn't the press milk this to some degree because you this is alec baldwin, he's controversial, he played trump on snl. >> sure, he is one of the post well-known actors in america and he killed somebody on a set. it's a tragic story, it's a horrible story. but it's an incredible story that this happened. and of courses been very vocal and outspoken about the nra. yet he and many other actors made millions and millions of dollars profiting off movies that use gun violence. it's tripled according to the american pediatric association. gun violence tripled in movies over the past three decades and yet baldwin and other ofs get out there and rail against the nra and other gun rights groups. so an incident like this puts a spotlight on his political views on guns, unfortunately. just a tragic incident all the way around but an incredible story. howie: i don't want to lose sight of the fact that it is such a heart breaking tragedy and the 42-year-old cinematographer whos was killed who he said was his friend, halyna hutchins, and let me go to marie with the time we have left, does all the media finger pointing -- there should be journalistic investigations of this and there are, takes the spotlight off of the woman who tragically lost her life. >> i think some outlets have been trying to really keep that spotlight on her, while being sensitive to a family that is in mourning. i think it's gotten especially the alec baldwin piece of this so much media attention this week when a number of important stories that maybe aren't as sensational or politicized haven't been. i think when we on tv, those of us in the media look at what stories we put on television as news, there has been criticism that this has gotten so much attention, particularly the alec baldwin piece of it, when there are americans killed by gun violence every day in many places around this country that don't get the the same coverage. it's an interesting question. howie: that is a fair point. i do think there's so much public interest because it's one of the most famous actors in the country tragically killed somebody who he said was his friend. thank sow much for stopping -- thank you so of much for stopping by. we made a lot of news last week when neil cavuto with multiple health problems pleaded with people to get vaccinated in his first interview here after contracting covid. he even drew praise from some competitors at rival cable networks along with harshly negative e-mails that he had had fun reading on the air. his message is really important which is why it generated so many headlines. that's it for this edition of media buzz. i'm howard kurtz. we hope you'll like our facebook page. you can post your comments. we can continue the conversation on twitter as well. check out my podcast, media buzz meter. we have a lot of fun doing this, we look at the buzziest stories of the day and the media coverage, you can subscribe at i-tunes, google pod casts or your amazon device. we're back here next sunday, 11:00 eastern, we p hope to see you all then with the latest buzz. ♪ >> tech: when you get a chip in your windshield... trust safelite. this couple was headed to the farmers market... when they got a chip. they drove to safelite for a same-day repair. and with their insurance, it was no cost to them. >> woman: really? 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hello, welcome to "fox news live." i'm eric shawn. hi, arthel. arthel: hi, eric. hello, everyone, i'm arthel neville. a fox news poll now showing the gop's glenn youngkin with an