Access. You find a guy who says jill kelley from tampa, florida our journalist is priorities are out of whack and did David Petraeus get unusual treatment from the veterans he cultivated. Some ignorant teenagers wrote horrible things about president obama on twitter, messages that were exposed by the website jezebel. But did they go too far in trying to get these students punished. Plus bill oreilly called him one of the biggest race baiters in the media. Kuhnen very sags with eric degreens. Im howard kurtz and this is reliable sources. Gans. Im howard kurtz and this is reliable sources. The president of the United States and. Automatically takes effect in just of o every a month if they cant face an agreement. The health of the American Economy and maybe if it goes down to the wire the fiscal cliff story will receive 1 10 theed my ya attention as the scandalous saga of dave and paula and john and jill. Joining us now here the washington is jane hall. Bob cusack, managing editor of the capital nooup the hill. And amy argetsinger. Why has it become synonymous with bore dom . Well, theres no sex with it. Thats the bottom line. This story is wild. The petraeus story has gone in a lot of different directions. First he resigns. Then we find out why. Then we find out about the other woman. The inappropriate emails. Youre saying that barack Obama Meeting with john boehner and Mitch Mcconnell doesnt quite get readers as excited . Not as titillating. This is what the election was fought over and yet i have the impression that a lot of the country is yawning but really many of the journalists covering the story are oning. Theres a story about low how the mighty are falling. Privacy, security, while covering the sex. Are you suggesting that the bigger issues are actually a bit of a shall we say figure lea le . There are bigger issues there but the problem is the fiscal cliff is extremely important. Its interesting to me that its ben bernanke who dubbed it. I would have thought a reporter would have dubbed it. As a consumer of newses, when you see stories about the fiscal cliff do you go clicking off to someone else . No. I dont. I try. I try my darnest. I pick up the stories and think im going to understand it for once. Its a big, big story if youre covering economic on a national stage. I think it is getting covered a lot yochl ku. Blame the media if readers are going to be clicking more or turning more to story about petraeus. The problem wo budget stories is its incremental. Every day only a little bit happens and the next day slight movement. It doesnt have the natural arc on a holiday thriller. Now there was a Pew Research Survey the over day. Fiscal cliff 3rks 3 . Thats pretty good. 28 the situation in benghazi. 22. And the other 78 are lying. Come on. 22 . Anybody buying that . I saw that. Thought it was interesting that they thought the petraeus story was important. Unlike the lewinsky story. They thought this story had more to it. The lieu win skin story did lead to a president ial picture. But i thank may not be telling the truth. One thing john boehner did say is one message out of the selection is people want us to do something. They want to end the gridlock. So i think there is this mysteriousness. I asked about the petraeus scandal and he said its funful we should just enjoy it. You know, no apologies for diving in to the details. Theres this incredible cast of characters. Its not just Paula Broadwell and jill kelley. Its her sister whos now hired Gloria Allred . Should we not feel embarrassed by this . A lot of the reporters in washington, theyre coming back from the campaign trail and if they have a choice what theyre going to pick. Pe trail or medicare, all these policy changes, theyre proing going to pick that because they know thats going to get more clicks. I would also say its a very popular figure with washington media establishment. And that was no accident. I would argue that its possible the petraeus scandal is more engrossing than it is for the rest of the country. Just the conversation i had with someone in richmond who was kind of hazy on who paula broad well was. The pe trail story is hotter. Take a look at this one that airs the other weekend. One woman stands at the center of it all. Jill kelley seen here leaving her home in tampa, florida, walking down some stairs and getting into a car. Seen here in the same clip doing the same thing because its the only footage we have of her. Okay. Need i say more . Thats the best ive seen in months. That nailed it. Television does do that when its the only clip we have. The only problem is that congress doesnt act until its right up ton a deadline and you have another month. You may see a satellite skit of john boehner and nancy pelosi. Who knows. They could be here right up until new years eve. Theres another somewhat serious story thats gotten a lot of Media Attention and that is whats going to happen to the Republican Party whos lost two straight president ial elections and its interesting to me that some of the conservative commentators seem to be shifting a little bit. Sean hannity has evolved. Charles krien jaimer says lets just do amnesty. Its interesting to me that the pundits who are often more visible than any of the president ial wannabe candidates are changing their toon. I think theyre thanking their tune because they saw the disastrous results with mitt romney. I think it was very interesting that hannity said that. Whats interesting to me is the blood lining thats going on as to whos to blame. I think a lot of people think we have to do something. We have to figure this one out. So is this acourse correction by the people on the right who spout off for a living . Were accustomed certainly to politicians who bob and weave and move toward the center after a primary and so forth. It seems to me some of the pun dids are doing that as well. They are and they like to win and when they lose they have to assist, lessons learned. It was interesting that he said, maybe we should tax millionaires. Also if year a pundit, i mean if youre going to get attention you need to Say Something is thats a little counterintuitive. Its a natural progression. Maybe its a volume here for people like crystal and hannity and crown hammer and others. They may be engage nds a spin anyway. We havent heard a public word from mitt romney. He has vanished from the stage. Other republicans are beating up on him. The only thing we did hear was the conversation he had with donors about president obama getting gifts from hispanics, women, gais, hat the spotlight been shifted back to Rush Limbaugh and everybody else who pines for a living . I think so. Republicans want mitt romney to now fade away. President obama has invited romney over the white house. That hasnt happened yet. Republican dont want him at the white house. I do think now were going go back to the pundits and theyre shifti shifting. When you have bobby jindal saying i dont think they are the way to win, the whole argument they want treats like animals they want treats, thats what laura ingram said. This is interesting. I would not argue with you. Im sorry. That was ann coulter. Lets quote her accurately. I would not argue with you that many republicans would want to kind of whitewash or erase mitt romney from the election and pren frooend he didnt happen. Whats interesting to me is do you think theyre dying to get an interview with mitt romney and get his take Going Forward or is he just considered because he lost, we kind of brand people a loser even though, you know, it was a relatively close election. Listen. Before election day people were talking about who we should be looking for in 2016. Yeah, absolutely. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that Chris Christie was playing himself on saturday night live look forward to the leekz four years from now. Whats interesting we talked about the coverage by fox news and msnbc. Fox obviously favoring mitt romney and being negative toward bam. The reverse at msnbc. Pew has come out with some final weeks figures. This is on steroids. You have fox airing in the last seven days, only 5 positive about the president. Msnbc, zero. Not a single positive story about mitt romney. What does that tell you . Well, it tells you that the fox and the antifox have been prospering and it will be interesting to see. You know, i think its very interesting the moment of truth when meg and kelly chachlk karl rove and they say we are a news organization, we are going to prove that. Its going to be interesting, what will be the role of msnbc. Will they be critical of barack obama paubecause hes been elec. When you take it out of the political hothouse is there room for views or are they going to play to the base . Obviously everyone is playing to the base and theres these batters around the water cooler but now i think things have calmed down a little bit. All right. We hope it heats up again. Well have plenty to talk about. The pundits who botched the election bigtime. Is there any punishment for being embarrassingly wrong. Thats right. So its like i won. Sure. Oh my gosh i won i won [ male announcer ] get a 100 walmart gift card when you buy any android or windows 8 smartphone. Through december 1st. From americas gift headquarters. Walmart. Through december 1st. When you take a closer look. At the best schools in the world. You see they all have something very interesting in common. They have teachers. With a deeper knowledge of their subjects. As a result, their students achieve at a higher level. Lets develop more stars in education. Lets invest in our teachers. So they can inspire our students. Lets solve this. Yeah we both relieve coughs, sneezing, aches, fevers. And i relieve nasal congestion. Overachiever. [ female announcer ] tylenol® cold multisymptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion. Nyquil® cold and flu doesnt. In any other profession if you are wrong, repeatedly wrong, you pay a price, you may lose your job. What if youre a professional pundit and you blow i like these folks. Win by a landslide, it will be the Biggest Surprise in recent american political history. I got this romney three points. Im picking romney to narrowly win. This just further evidence why i believe he will sweep the midwest and win this election going away, and im now predicting a 330 electoral vote landslide. Yes, thats right. 330 election tral votes. All of my thinking says romney big. Romney big, romney landslide. Jane hall, should pun dids pay any price for being spectacularly wrong . I think it should run under there. Karl rove is the best and worst example of a man who yazed 300 million. Im sure theyre trying to figure out what happened and why didnt anybody win. Thats his political role . His pun dead arm. Hes writing opeds. Dick still there. Theres no penalty. Youre being asked to pundit ooize again. Heres the thing. I dont want to blame the media being part of the media, but lets face it. Theres going to be a lot more interest if someone says unlike whats been said before, if someone says risky or daring or counterintuitive. You know, why should we care what november these guys have to say in the first place . Well, because presumably theyre smart students of politics who understand the electoral trans and polling. Or ty look good on tv or cute. I dont know. Because they have Something Interesting to say and thats why theyre getting booked. Its relatively new to have political operatives be pundits. I want to come to that point. We have to point out. Conservative commentators were rooting for a romney victory. And im not saying this to beat up on the right. If barack obama had lost this election and there were a lot of liberals out there, i would ask the same question. Does that undermine their credibility . I think it does. Dick morriss comments for the hill. He wrote a mia kulpa. I think the left and the right. They cant separate their rooting interest sometimes. They think, okay. Romney can they look at cherry pick certain data to say hes going win and clearly there were some major mistakes. Think four years from now youre going to remember that. If they make a prediction nobodys going to remember this four years from now. Theyre going to come out with four fancy new sets and say heres why i think marco rubio or jeb bush is going to make it, you name it. Obviously karl rove took a lot of heat from it. Were these honest miscalculations because everybody in the business mangs mistakes and they try to paut on the crystal ball or were they trying to be partisan cheerleaders. When i saw long faces i knew the rom Anyone Campaign told fox they were going to lose way before it happened if you really read the tea leaves. I dont know. The interesting thing is if you were a viewer to fox, including romney, you aplarnl had trouble believing what reality was because you had been so told snowed is the word i think we used to use. You dont think fox viewers went into Election Night thinking this would be a close election . I dont know. But all i know is they clicked off right at after it wasdy claired. In other words, the polling was wrong and, you know, some number of republicans i talked to, republican analysts say there use going to be so much more enthusiasm on the gop side to get obama out of the white house that you have to way these polls differently. This is what happens. If you cover a campaign, you even been in that position you receives in the bum. Youre surrounded by people who are voting your way, and wherever you go there are big crowds and it becomes very hard to look at any hard data that counter acts the feeling you have around you. How did we get into this whole sort of culture of prediction . I mean the media have always kind of given you a wink, a nod, a lean this way or that way. Heres whats likely to happen. Now you come out there and say mitt romneys going to win in a landslide and you hope youre right. Its more blatant than it used to be. All of it is geared toward whos going to win. You could say, the jets are going to win big on sunday. This is the democracy at stake. Is it that the rewards are such that youve got be out there but stick your neck out and read the tea leaves . I think so. Its provideo cameraive and gets headlines. If its not clear to me, the data would seem to indicate you dont get invited back. And you dont get picked up on line. Amy argetsinger and bob cusack. Thanks for joining us. Veteran reporter tom ricks in a moment. I am probably going to the gas station about once a month. Last time i was at a gas station was about. I would say. Two months ago. I very rarely put gas in my chevy volt. I go to the gas station such a small amount that i forget how to put gas in my car. [ male announcer ] and its not just these owners giving the volt high praise. Volt received the j. D. Power and associates appeal award two years in a row. [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of all day pain relief. This season, discover aleve. All day pain relief with just two pills. The media furor cast a harsh like on the worlds most famous general. It may have affected his coverage including affair that prompted his resignation as cia director. Joining me is thomas ricks. Tom, welcome. Thank you. Based on this book, the generals, one of them is general petraeus. You had one earlier called the gamble. Fair to say i think youre an admirer of petraeus . Yes, and i remain so. And whats it like working with him in terms of his working with the press . You need to use the media to get your views out, that its a responsibility of a general to explain to the American People what youre doing with their money and their children in some war overseas, and so he engaged and he use thad megaphone to explain this is what im doing, this is what im trying to do. Thats an interesting verb, use the media. Some would see that as manipulating the media. I think he did that too. So did dwight eisenhower, explaining it to people, routinely holding press conferences, talking to reporters. How much of that courtship and exchange of emails and journali journalism, has that affected everything more than he might have gotten otherwise . No, i dont think. Actually i think the media has been in full shark bite frenzy without regard. If anything i find the real scandal or one of the scandals here is how much the media has turned on petraeus. Heres a guy who has four combat tours in recent years. Thats more combat time than any American General had in world war ii, who has a smashed pelvis from a parachuting accident, who has a bullet wound through the chest from a training accident. He and his family, and i include his wife Holly Petraeus in, that have given enormously in the last ten years, yet when this scandal broke, we as a country were not as generous with him as his family had been with the country. You seem to be suggesting that journalists are biting the hand that fed them, they were perfectly happy with general petraeus when he was on top. Suddenly this scandal, fall from grace, huge tabloid style, and you say the press has turned against him. Ive seen a lot of people like yourself who have known him and the family, it seemed its a matter that should have remained private, first of all. Its not a criminal act. Theres no allegation that hes commit add crime. You know, it could always change. But here he was in a relationship with a consenting adult who was not in his chain of command. Hes hardly, i think, probably the first cia director to have had an affair. This begins with another scandal which is the fbi investigating a lovers quarrel, which i think is an abuse of taxpayers dollars. You think he should not have resigned. No, i dont think he should have. And youre saying i think it became public once he resigned. I think president obama should have said you made a big mig stake, make amends to your wife and youre going back to work. They should have said this is a private matter involving a mistrust by petraeus and hes dealt with it. Youd have that view with any former fourstar you hadnt dealt with . Id have that view with anybody whos given Great Service to the country. I just dont understand the frenzy of going after this guy. There is no allegation of crime. Its even worse with john allen, this marine general, who sends a bench of emails to a woman and hes suddenly involved in scandal. News flash, David Petraeus is a human being, number two, a general is sending emails to a woman. A scandal is john allen, a fine general, being dragged into this mess and people thinking its part of a scandal. A scandal is fbi looking at a lovers quarrels. A scandal you believe the medias priorities are completely screwed up in the sense that the serious questions of running a war and serious careers have been consuminged, overshadows, off the screen so to speak in favor of the focus on sex and scandal. Lets face it. The cia director resigns. Its hard not to cover the story, but you think that the we are scandalinsaysed in this business . Yes. I was thinking earlier im glad im no long were the Washington Post because i would have been pressured to cover this and i would have been really conflicted. It is in a moral a miscalculation of priorities. We in the nation seem to be more concerned about the sex lives of our generals and that the real lives of our soldiers. I actually printed out something before i came over here today. Its a great trivia question. Excuse me. In my service i need to use glasses. Who is sergeant channing b. Hicks . Who is specialist joe sif richardson . The answer is they were two soldiers who died last friday in afghanistan. Everybody knows Paula Broadwells names. Nobody knows sold eiers who are dying in afghanistan. You think the media has become unfair to Paula Broadwell and David Petraeus . Yeah. Weve basically set these people on fire. They were consenting adults engaged in private acts. The lack of decency, i think, is kind of appalling to me. I mean also the consequences of what happens to these people. We dont have so many good leaders that we can throw them away casually. General petraeus stood out notably more so than his piers. The question is you can be a mediocre general as long as you keep your pants on. In other words, youre not proud of the media at this point. No, im abashed. We dont talk about the wars until theres son titillating scandal. Tom ricks, thanks very much for stopping by. Appreciate it. After the break are the media playing an incendiary role when it comes to racial stories. We talk to eric degreeness in a moment. I was saving big on car insurance. With snapshot, i knew what i could save before i switched to progressive. The better i drive, the more i save. I wish our company had something this cool. Youre not filming this, are you . Aw camera shy. Snapshot from progressive. Testdrive snapshot before you switch. Visit progressive. Com today. I have a cold. I took dayquil, but i still have a runny nose. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesnt work on runny noses. What . [ male announcer ] it doesnt have an antihistamine. Really . [ male announcer ] really. Alkaseltzer plus cold and cough fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a fast acting antihistamine to relieve your runny nose. [ sighs ] thank you [ male announcer ] youre welcome. Thats the cold truth [ male announcer ] alkaseltzer plus. Oh what a relief it is [ male announcer ] cant find theraflu . Try alkaseltzer plus for fast, liquid, cold, and flu relief. And this is the nokia lumia 920 from at t. Its got live tiles so all my stuffs always right there in realtime. Its like the ultimate personal assistant. But im me, and me needs handlers. So i hired todd to handle it for me. Todd, gimme that hollywood news whats happening on twitter . Youre trending yes i like you todd. I dont like todd because hes quitting. But now im hiring a new todd and it could be you. [ male announcer ] go to workforwill. Com and try live tiles, that deliver what you want in real time. Only from at t. Rethink possible. Race remains the constant. Do they handle questions with restraint or do too many play an inflammatory role in reporting such stories. Joins us now from tampa is eric deggans and awe thof o the new book racebaiter. Eric, welcome. Thanks for having me. Lets start with bill oreilly calling you and youve put this in the top of the book, one of the biggest racebaiters in america. How did he react when you challenged him on that . It was interesting. He was giving a speech in sarasota close too my st. Petersburg home. I was invited to take part in a News Conference he was holding right before his speech and when i asked him about this, he wouldnt really engage. He said hed have to see the exact words he said. I asked him about this idea that white people couldnt talk to black people about race because its too explosive and he recounted some of the times when he felt like he had been unfairly maligned for the way that he talked about race. I dont think we really had a meeting of the minds. You are really rough on fox news. Seems thats painting with an awfully broad brush. I guess in one way you could say im being tough on them but really im outlining a Program Structure thats seemed to emerge on that channel where i felt they have unfairly singled out these instances where balm people seem to be threatening or seem to have done something untoward, and in the case of Shirley Sherrod, you know, we had a woman who was at least talked about on some of their opinion shows. We talking these things and try to understand why people. Just to remind people, Shirley Sherrod was the former agricultural official who was the focus of a deceptively edited video who made her appear to be racist when she was just the opposite. The next day he apologized and said he hadnt done his home work. When you say its a consistent programming strategy, youre not saying its the individual hosts that you have a problem with but the whole network demonizes the black people and that seems overstated. Well in the book i did point out that built oreilly did apologize about her but there were others. And in that chapter, i point out several different instances where fox hosts seemed to cross the line in terms of talking about scary black people and either offered these sort of very unofficial apologies that were not disciplined. And i think when you see something happen over and over and over again and ive been talking about how bill oreilly talks about race on fox, since 2002, and when you see Something Like this happen again and again and again and people are not significantly disciplined, it takes forever, you know, for there to be some fallout for glenn beck on called barack obama racist on the air, you really have to question how seriously they are worried about how these incidents are viewed and whether or not theyre willing to at least crack down so they dont happen again. Youve also criticized msnbc for hiring al sharpton whos not a journalist but an activist. Ive been on your shows particularly with regard to the Trayvon Martin case in your state of florida. Exactly. And in the book i talk a little bit about how he toggled between these roles of acting as a spokesman for the Trayvon Martin family and also hosting a show that talkeden the news on msn m and how that might erode peoples confidence in the honest brokered status in even people who express opinions on cable television. Th there has to be some sense of an honest brokerage. That has always troubled me. Could it be said, eric, that you as a black journalist that you are sensitive on this subject and yo are playing out racial aspects of many of these stories . I mean the point of the title of the book is when you try to talk about these issues the first thing that some people do is try to accuse you of being overly sensitive, but i think in the book i tried very hard to present opposing points of view. I tried very hard to reach out to some of the people i criticized the most and give them a chance to say what they felt they were doing. But at the same time, when you want to talk about these issues, do you have to have a sense of whats going on, look at studies, you have to talk to experts, and you have to be willing to endure a certain amount of criticism yourself and preenlt these points of view and say, you know, theres a problem here. And think we realize in this runup to the election, seeing as how people talk about the 47 , talked about a food Stamp President , seeing how people sort of sloughed off the working poor and talked about how minorities and women voted because they got gifts, i think this kind of language, this kind of racebaiting and gender baiting is all around us and its been around us throughout this Political Campaign and people are getting tired of it and they want some way to sort through it all and whaunss at risk and i try to put all of that in the book. Eric deggans, i appreciate talking with you. Thanks for joining us. Thanks a lot, howie. Ahead on reliable sources, teenagers who tweeted about pennsylvania. Did the website jezebel go too far . The editor will be h here in a moment. Not today. [ male announcer ] bob has afib Atrial Fibrillation not caused by a heart valve problem, a condition that puts him at greater risk for a stroke. [ gps ] turn left. I dont think so. [ male announcer ] for years, bob took warfarin, and made a monthly trip to the clinic to gehis blood tested. But not anymore. Bobs doctor recommended a different option onceaday xarelto®. Xarelto® is the first and only onceaday prescription blood thinner for patients with afib not caused by a heart valve problem, that doesnt require routine blood monitoring. Like warfarin, xarelto® is proven effective to reduce the risk of an afibrelated stroke. There is limited data on how these drugs compare when warfarin is well managed. 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Lets build a strong foundation. Lets invest in our teachers so they can inspire our students. Lets solve this. There was some exceedingly ugly stuff on twitter after president obama was reelected. Some of these tweets written by High School Students and exposed by jezebel, a website that usually focuses on women, sex, and gossip. They went a step further and called schools to ask if they were aware. Joining us now is the editor in chief of jezebel, jessica coen. Welcome. Hi. How did you find out about these racist tweets in the first place . We were just doing a search for barack obama and taking a look at the twitter reaction and saw some unfortunate things and started doing things for racial slurs and so many tweets came up it was shocking. Shocking. Maybe not shocking but upsetting certainly. And then did you decide as a result of this shocking news to make an example of some of these students who had put out this racist trash . Well, first we wanted to document what was going on. That was the first post but the story doesnt end with documenting it. Its important to report what happens after the tweets go out there. Many of these students are actually representing their zools as parts of teams or theyre looking for College Scholarships and more importantly theyre parts of institutions that have very clear codes against this part of hate speech. So what happen whence you put that sort of message out there . Thats the question. We called the schools to find out. So when you took that extra step of calling school officials, school administrators, it sounds to some people, including me, an effort to get them punished, some people thought it was even bullying. No. Whats going to happen is probably inevitable, yes, but were another bullying bullies. They put their messages out there. They put their names on it. Theyre publicly part of these schools. To call an organization, when you find out an individual is part of an organization and theyre acting in a manner that violates the codes of that organization, violates the codes of that organization, as a reporter it makes sense to call that organization. I would never want to defend this kind of hate speech, but these are teenagers. What you just said certainly would be the case if dealing with anybody whos an adult, but by taking this extra step and calling the schools, it seemed like you wanted to make sure your reporting it an outcome as opposed to letting the schools deal with this on their own. I dont think it matters theyre teenagers. I understand there are protections legally when it comes to minors, but these kids werent actually breaking the law, they were just demonstrating some really awful speech and really reflecting in sid u us thought process. They need to learn, Everybody Needs to learn theres no divide between real life and online. What you say online is just as important as what you say in real life. So i dont think it matters what actually happens to the kids at the schools per se. Were not acting as judges or juries, our responsibility is just to the story. But again, the stuff was just awful, some of it i cant repeat on the air. Absolutely. Some of these kids are 15, 16, 17, some repeating what they heard their parents say. But theyre old enough tto know exactly what theyre saying. I dont care if youre 15 or 16, i think no one would disagree that those kids didnnt know wt they were saying. They were expressing dissatisfaction with the election, they were upset that barack obama was president. They knew they were using negative, offensive words to express their disappointment. But didnt think anybody outside their circle of friends would see it probably. I dont know what they thought, thats the thing. Were talking about a native population of users here. The internet was thriving by the time these kids were born. So really it follows that they should actually know exactly that the message is going out there, and they should know exactly how twitter works. Maybe they didnt think anyone would find it, but when you are using words that are incendiary and people look to see the larger public reaction involving those words, of course their tweets are going to come up. So jessica, part of your goal here in addition to going after the hateful speech posted online by these particular High School Students was kind of to teach a lesson to a lot of younger people who may just think their facebook and twitter postings exist within this protected world and cant get them into trouble . Is that part of whats going on here . I mean, were not actively trying to teach anyone anything. Hopefully the general public pulls some information out of what happened here, but were not shaking our fingers, saying you better learn next time. Thats not our position or role. Did they produce traffic for jezebel . Sure, absolutely. I guess you touched a nerve, and the thing is by posting the tweets themselves, you showed the ugliness and some of the language against the president. And to come from the mouths of children is incredibly upsetting and really disturbing. We talk about racism in this country and it is such a timely nature with barack obama and the election, its going to kind of set off a fire storm of controversy. People are very involved in this issue, theyre its very emotional for a lot of people, very sensitive. Theres a huge historical and political context there, and yes, those stories traditionally will get a lot of attention. Jezebel did precisely that. Jessica coen, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Still to come, a Great American novelist lays down his pen. Latest thoughts on phillip rolf. These smartphones come with a bonus 100 walmart gift card . Thats right. So its like i won. Sure. Oh my gosh i won i won [ male announcer ] get a 100 walmart gift card when you buy any android or windows 8 smartphone. Through december 1st. From americas gift headquarters. Walmart. [ tylenol bottle ] me too and nasal co [ tissue box ] he said nasal congestion. Yeah. I heard him. [ female announcer ] tylenol® cold multisymptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion. Nyquil® cold and flu doesnt. I could hardly believe it when phillip roth said he is giving up writing. He has written 31 books since 1959, including classics goodbye columbus, zuckerman outbound, the human stain, and i read most of them. In a three our sit down with the new york times, roth provides fascinating insight into writing fiction. He said i knew i wasnt going to get another good idea, or if i did, id have to slave over it. I know im not going to write as well as i used to. I no longer have the stamina to endure the frustration. Writing is frustration, daily frustration, not to mention u mill agency. It is like baseball, you fail twothirds of the time. I cant face any more days when i write five pages and throw them away. I cant do that any more. Boy do i know that feeling. Writing and good writing involves going to the keyboard again and again. I think i write as publish as often as i can bear being without a book to work on, but routinely when i finish a book, i think what will i do . Where will i get an idea . And a kind of low level panic sets in. And then eventually something happens. If i knew how it happened, i would repeat the process, but i dont know, something just occurs to me. But now hes done, roth is spending his time cooperating with a biographer, and i love this part, playing with his new iphone. Part of me says youre too talented, you cant give up writing. He is 79. I guess he earned the right to take it easy. Thats it for this edition. Hope you enjoy this weekend. Go to itunes monday, get a podcast or buy the video version. Search for reliable sources in the itunes store. Back next sunday 11 00 a. M. Eastern for another critical look at the media