health plans, not so much. that is until catholic leaders and some commentators began sounding off. >> catholics and christians all across america are fired up over president obama's approval of new regulations that require insurance plans of religious organizations to provide contraseptive coverage. >> why did it take news outlets a couple of weeks to catch up with the catholic protests? a former white house intern for president kennedy says she was his mistress 50 years ago. >> did he realize that you were a virgin? >> i think he did because he kept asking me if i was all right and i was all right. >> but she confirmed the affair nine years ago. was her book really worth an nbc primetime interview? plus are we'll look at the coverage of the sad and unexpected death of whitney houston. i'm howard kurtz, and this is "reliable sources." >> we're going to begin with the tragic death at the age of 48 of singer whitney houston, and joining us on the line from los angeles is cnn's larry king, and, larry, my question is very simple and very straight forward. what is it about her death, why is this such a big story, the coverage began practically wall to wall last night on "cable news networks?" >> well, it was disturbing. one, she's probably the best singer we have, ranking with streisand and judy garland. there were very few of these. she ranked right at the top. two, she's a victim of blaming her ex-husband, bobbi brown. she's a fantastic looking person. a terrific actress who made a wonderful movie with kevin costner. who sang songs that will live forever. she changed music. there was no one like her. at the party last night clive davis's annual grammy party, tony bennett came out and did an incredible tribute to her and sang a song. i think she was worth all the accolades, and then, of course, the tragedy of any person dying at age 48. >> that's the other part of the story, of course, larry, is that the fact that her life became a kind of train wreck, doesn't that, sadly, hasn't that added to the media and public fascination with whitney houston? >> absolutely. when i was there at that party last night, when i walked the red carpet, that's all people were asking about. the tragedy. what do you think she died of? how can such a great performer fall to such things like this? in fact, there's a picture i'm looking at today of her taken a couple of days ago where she looks really disshovelled. when i saur her last year at this same party she looked terrific. the ups and downs of her life, i think, are the absolute grab at media. that's why you're leading off with it. >> we got a chance to talk to you, in part. we'll have more on the whitney houston tragedy later in the program. thanks to larry king. turning now to a story that kind of dominated the news here in washington. it wasn't exactly big news on january 20th when the obama administration turned down a request from the catholic church that catholic colleges, hospitals, and charities -- the washington post put it on page one, but the "new york times" carried the news on page 17. the l.a. times carried a few paragraphs on page 7. the network newscast didn't touch it 25u89 at all, and then silence. about ten days later as catholic leaders and some republicans, a handful of cable news shows began paying a bit more attention. >> roman catholic bishop said the obama administration is telling the church to "to hell with you." >> the obama administration has found itself in a fight it would like to avoid with the catholic church. >> catholic church leaders are outraged by a new rule by the obama administration. we're going to show you what all the uproar is about. >> it wasn't until this week that the controversy really reverb rated across the media landscape. >> i'm going to say, it is a staggering, staggering decision by hhs. >> as today a fiery debate took center stage about women, contraception, and a white house order that has the catholic church up in arms. >> why did it take the mainstream media to recognize the full magnitude of this story? joining us here in washington, lauren ashburn, president of ashburn media and a former managing editor of "usa today" and gwinnett broadcasting. >> and george, a former cnn washington bureau chief. lauren ashburn, this has created, to use that word we keep hearing, a form storm. how did the media -- >> i think i disagree about the media misjudging this story. the catholic church has just kept its mouth shut when it comes to controversial issues. look at the way that they handled the pedophilia scandal. actually, i think that, in part, has allowed the catholic church, the media has brought the catholic church hierarchy, dragged it kicking and screaming, into the 21st century media world. milwaukeeing them come out in front and then bringing the hierarchy, bringing the actual people on camera. if you take a look recently at "morning joe," for example, and joe and his co-host, brought up -- brought in cardinal donald whirl of the archdiocese of washington. they brought him on for 12 minutes, and had a very high-minded discussion about this issue. hannity on fox had a one-hour special on faith yesterday morning on msnbc they brought on father bill daley, right, out of notre dame, and he talked about this in a very self-deprecating way. again, it was driving the controversy. >> komen foundation 24 hours after it hit social networks. it erupted with this. why wait for catholic leaders to speak out saying this is a pretty sensitive hot button controversy. >> i think what happened here is you started with policy and it became politics, and politics is always easier and more fiery. policy is narrower. it's sort of down in the weeds, and the fact of the matter is this policy is -- if you are a catholic charity or catholic church, what's the difference? it's the insurance policy that's accessible. are we making -- >> too complicated for the media? >> not too complicated, but too ar contain. at the point that it goes on to become part of the campaign, and you have candidates saying the obama administration has declared war on religion. it fits a larger narrative. at the point that as you were saying as you have leaders of the catholic church, one of whom was on cbs this morning a couple of days ago, for a long period of time, very out there, very combative, quotable and this then it gains a different kind of traction. >> i have to give props to use a term, to the media for not attacking members of the catholic church. >> why would they deserve an award for not attacking members of the catholic church? is there an expectation that we would attack the church? >> we have in the past. look at the pedophilia scandal. the arguments were so divisive in the conversations were so polluted and i really -- >> over the -- of the contraception thing? >> about fed peela earlier. >> i don't see tension here at all. >> i do. >> pedophilia is a grow tefk crime. >> it was torment the by the media. it came out against something that it believed in. >> to come back to your point about catholic leaders, the new york archbishop, timothy dole anned wrote the crime is about five days after the announcement. even that didn't kick start this kind of coverage, and i have to say you talk about giving props, two liberal commentator says, chris matthews at the top, and e.j. from the washington post columnist were outraged. they happen to be catholic. >> outraged by? >> by the obama policy criticized their side, so to speak. >> it merited an earlier and deeper examination. there's no question about it. as i say, i think this is where we see issues in the media. there is this lag time. if you have a turbo, you know we call a turbo lag, and you don't go right away. when a story starts as a policy story -- to be honest, the catholic church and dole anned by himself should be enough to warrant a deeper look. when you start going into -- when turbo lag is done and you go into hyper drive and you have the candidates and others, that's when you get the media pile-on. that's when you get the multiplier effect. that's what happened here. >> the talking points for the catholic church, howie, always were saying this is not about contraception. this is about religious freedom. religious freedom. religious freedom. religious freedom. they kept saying it over and over and over again. i think that is the reason that the media actually began to pick up on it. it didn't just become a catholic issue. >> if there was a tin ear here initially, is it related to the fact that most journalists are not particularly religious, whether they're catholic or not? >> no. >> you're saying because it wasn't a political flap. you're saying -- >> i'm saying -- you know, i can't speak for how many -- i have no idea how many are religious or aren't or aing nostic or catholic or jewish, and so i think that your question is -- >> religion generally -- >> there's also -- >> religion generally doesn't give that much coverage. >> that's not true. >> there's a lot of irony and contradiction in this thing. so we know where the catholic church stands on contraception, it's been long held, but 98% of women, catholic women, what -- >> doesn't matter. >> of course, it matters. >> no, it doesn't matter. >> because there has been -- within media circles and elsewhere, there has been a certain discount factor, i believe, because there is such a disconnect on this issue. it doesn't mean it's not legitimate and shouldn't be looked at, but this does not in any way rise to the pedophilia example that -- >> and -- >> i'm not saying pedophilia and contraception are equal. let's be clear. i'm talking about stories as how the catholic church is portrayed. >> stories worthy of attention and trying to explain this. they're not. >> since there is more than one catholic position here as evidenced by that 98% figure and a poll of catholics found that 58% actually support the obama policy. there is another side which is proilg providing no cost access to birth control, to lower income women. did the media then swing too far in the other direction? 28 states have similar laws. >> i think you could argue, and you could attack the media for not looking. if you are going to talk about holding authority to account wherever that will authority may be, there is a giant story within the catholic church over their attitudes towards these issues, and their diswecht with their followers. that's part of this too. >> i think i disagree. i think that, yes, you call people cafeteria catholics, and, yes, in the media we are hearing that 98% of women use birth control. i mean, that was one of the stories, but does that mean that because of that that they are not catholics and they're not concerned about religious freedom? >> lauren, that's not the issue. the issue is the media's role and the media's responsibility in all this. if the catholic church is, in effect, declaring war on the obama administration over the availability of contraception for people who work for institutions that are not merely the catholic church, but institutions supported by this religion, and saying this is war on religion, and if there is a scism, there is a divide within the catholic community, why is that not part of the story? >> within more question. i took some heat for saying that i thought that the media approached the whole komen foundation controversy, cutting up planned parenthood, from a liberal perspective. they didn't need any prodding. there was no two-week delay. what is the difference between the reaction there and the nonreaction or delayed reaction or muted reaction, however you want to characterize it, on this story? >> i -- you know, i think that part of the media has this, as we have discussed, many times on this show, howie, this add. you know, we're going to focus on jobs, jobs, jobs. we're going to focus on the maine primary. republican primaries. now, okay, oh, my gosh, this catholic issue is kind of dwegt some traction here. we better jump on it. >> i would say the komen story is different because that was propelled by citizen journalists. people give money to komen. they were following it. they were the ones who exploded and were outraged by it. can we discuss the disagreements within the catholic community about contraception and the availability of it? there wasn't much of a difference of opinion with komen, or at least there didn't appear to be, and the social media -- >> we could go on out. have i to get a break. more later on this program on the death of whitney houston. when we come back, cnn contributor roland martin suspended over a couple of controversial messages. are networks responsible for what their commentators say off the air? while some fiber ads use super models, metamucil uses super hard working psyllium fiber, which gels to remove unsexy waste and reduce cholesterol. taking psyllium fiber won't make you a model but you should feel a little more super. metamucil. down with cholesterol. >> roland martin was having a good time on twitter during the super bowl, but some of the cnn comment ate o's messages were until questionable taste. if a dude at your super bowl party is hyped about david beckham's h & m underwear ad smack the is out of him? who was in a nund patriot that was shown in a pink suit? he needs a visit from team wlip that ass. gay organizations called the remarks homophobic. he denied that, but he later apologized saying to those who construed my comment as being anti-gay or homophobic or advancing violence, i'm truly sorry. i can certainly understand how someone could come to a dirch conclusion than the one i meant. i'm disheartened that my words would embolden prejudice. after initially declining to respond to press, cnn suspended roland martin on wednesday for an unspecified length of time. networks saying in a statement roland martin's tweets were regrettable and offensive. language that demeans and is inconsistent with the values andcle tour of our organization and is not tolerated. should cnn have suspended him over those words? >> tough question. yeah, probably, because it has its own positioning that it needs to do with a larger community. it's not quite firing him, and it's not quite saying everything is just fine. we nabbed. it gives everybody a chance to step back and gives roland a chance to apologize and gives him a chance to meet with glad and other organizations and gives everybodying a chance to realize, you know what, tweets matter. >> they do matter, but my initial reaction is these were a couple of jokes, bad jokes, to be sure. cnn didn't say anything for two and a half days, but then what happened is the gay, ones racheted up the pressure. >> i think that he responded appropriately. it is a right. it is not a right. it is a privilege, not a right, to sit on television and to give your views and to talk to viewers and as soon as you crossed that line, i think it is appropriate for a suspension, and maybe they didn't even go far enough. maybe he should be assigned to do stories about the gay community instead of -- >> journalistic community service. >> that's right. that's right. >> why does cnn or any network feel responsible for something that somebody writes, and he is a contributor. he is not a full-time -- something somebody writes on twitter. >> this is -- >> it's all about your -- >> mainstream news organizations actually still have a role in the world. they stand for something. they have standards. they say this is how we expect you to behave. they say this is how we're going to hold you to account. you do have a job and a privilege as a public person and we want you to convey a certain tone and tenor because that's what we're about as an organization. >> let's talk about -- >> that's why juan williams isn't working at npr. >> let's talk about eric aircraftson. you remember in 2010 he was brought on to cnn as a contributor. he sat right here and talked to you, howie, and said i'm going to grow up, and he is going to stop that invective and that hate speech as executive editor of the conservative website. he did. you said i will hold you accountable bsh i'm going to check in on this, and i think that is the standard. i think you cannot come on television. you cannot tweet if you are on television things that are that hyper -- >> it's very important for the public to understand because many do not that news organizations, cnn, npr, the washington post, they have statements, ethics policies, things that are laid out for their employees. >> what the standard is is not entirely clear. you hire commentators to be opinionated. you like the fact that they're -- take a more recent example. another cnn contributor dana loche. should she be espned for saying that she would have urinated on the dead taliban army. she didn't say it on the air. she said it on a radio show, i believe. >> i'm not going to talk about whether she should or shouldn't have been suspended. it's a cnn policy. cnn gets to make those decisions that it's their news organization. however, i think the point needs to be made that if you are a public figure and you are tweeting things that the public could misconstrue as offensive, then it doesn't help the brand of cnn. it doesn't help the brand of fox for you to be on their program. >> as long as the news organization says that ahead of time, you can't make up the rules as you go along. >> look. i'm told that dana loche hasn't been on the air for some time, but you have ring sanchez, who was a talk show host here, and he called john stewart a bigot, and he joked about jews running the media. he got fired. octavia, a long-time cnn foreign affairs specialist, she got fired after tweeting after the death of an ayatollah, one of hezbollah's giants i respect a lot. he died with that terrorist group. there's a line you can't cross, but it's not clear to me where the line is. >> tweeting is really -- >> it's -- frankly because it's not a bright line. all right? and this is going to be taken into consideration, you hope, fairly by the executives as they go. if roland mashtin were to do this on the air, i bet he would be fired. >> wait. let me just make one point about tweeting. you have to do it. you have to be pithy, informative, smart, and funny all in a very short amount of time. everybody wants followers. you must have, what, 87,000 or something followers. twitter followers. the point -- the way that you get those followers is by tweeting all the time. not only that, but you are under this pressure to tweet and tweet and tweet. >> right. that's the danger, and you just have to be careful, and you have to be mindful, and you also need to know that there are consequences. those tweets, as clever as you're going to be, at some level you're going to be held accountable in the public statements. >> it's not just twitter. pat buchanan has not been on msnbc for months. he wrote a book about race and immigration that said some things that shouldn't be part of the national conversation. one thing we've agree odd here is if you have a role on air and it is a privilege to be on the air, anything you say in any other forum could be used against you because it's not a right. you have to leave it there. >> shouldn't be a surprise. words matter, right? >> no matter where and how they're said. >> coming up in the second part of ""reliable sources" "whitney houston, how she went from a media sweetheart to a tragic figure, and the guy the press was all but ignoring, rick santorum, has a triple triumph in the campaign. why were the pundits so ready to crown romney the winner? and mimi alford, why did nbc give that story an hour of primetime? ♪ [ door creaking ] [ dog whimpers ] ♪ ♪ get up offa that thing ♪ and dance till you feel better ♪ ♪ get up offa that thing ♪ and dance till you -- sing it now ♪ [ dog barks ] [ deep beetle exhaust, dog barks ] ♪ you feel good [ male