Transcripts For CNNW Reliable Sources 20140302

The main point right now the russians have to take away the rush yap forces from crimea. Its the main point. Crimea is ukraine territory. We talk independence of ukraine. Its all military forces have to remove from ukrainen territory. And now these very strong words as well from u. S. Secretary of state john kerry. Hes calling it an invasion, quote, it is an incredible act of aggression, really a stunning willful choice by president putin to invade another country. Russia is in violation of the sovereignty of ukraine, russia is in violation of its international obligations, russia is in violation, kerry says, of its obligations under the u. N. Charity, helsinki act, in violation as well of its obligations under the budapest agreement. He goes on to say, secretary kerry, you dont behave in a 19th century fashion by, again he uses this word, invading another country on completely trumped up pretexts. Nato ambassadors are expected to hold an urgent meeting today on the situation in ukraine. Our own Erin Mclaughlin is live. You have u. S. Officials, secretary kerry calling this an invasion. What exactly are nato officials considering there . Hi, jim. Earlier today the nato secretary general gave a brief statement to the media in which he called on russia to deescalate tensions. Take a listen to what he had to say. What russia is doing now in ukraine, violates the principles of the United Nations charter. It threatens peace and security in europe. Russia must stop its military activities and its threats. Today we will discuss their implications for european peace and security and for natos relationship with russia. Now there are two meetings taking place today here at nato headquarters. The first meeting, a meeting of the north atlantic council. Thats the primary Decision Making body for nato. That meeting we understand is still under way. That will be followed by a meeting by the nato ukraine commission. That meeting taking place at the behest of ukrainian officials. The commission was formed in 1997 with the aim of strengthening military inside the ukraine as well as improving ties between kiev and western europe. Now many people see the involvement of nato as inherently provocative. Others saying that nato cannot afford to idly stand by and watch this unfold without at least exploring options. Rasmussen in calling todays meeting rasmussen in calling todays meeting, at least appearing to agree with the latter sentiment, though whether or not this removes beyond rhetoric remains to be seen. William hague moving the United Kingdom beyond rhetoric and at the airport, heathrow airport, before taking off for the ukraine, he announced that the United Kingdom will no longer be taking part in preparations for the g8 summit that is scheduled for sochi in russia. Jim . Undoubtedly Difficult Conversations going there the brussels. Reminder to our viewers military options at least at this point have been taken off the table. Reliable sources starts in two minutes with a look at how the media is shaping the debate on gay rights issues. [ male announcer ] your heart. It powers your body to walk enough stairs in a lifetime to climb the Empire State Building 1,000 times. Your heart is amazing. Take care of it with centrum silver. Multivitamins with b vitamins and lycopene to help support your heart and packed with key nutrients to help support your eyes and brain, too. Centrum silver. For the most amazing parts of you. My sinuses are acting up and ive got this runny nose. I better take something. Truth is, sudafed pe pressure and pain wont treat all of your symptoms. Really . Alka seltzer plus severe sinus fights your tough sinus symptoms plus your runny nose. Oh what a relief it is its time for reliable sources. Heres whats coming up on the show. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has not asked a question in eight years. Why arent more reporters asking questions about that. Does race play a role . Then when president obama is on cnn and msnbc, why does fox news have bill nye the science guy on . And watching the oscars on your phone . It may be a breakthrough, do movie stars look as good when theyre two inches tall . Weve got all of that and a lot more on the show this morning. But first, a statement and a question. Weve seen a dramatic change in americas attitudes towards gay rights in the last few years. Heres the question, how much has the media influenced that change. Lets back up a moment and look at what happened this week. Another landmark week for gay rights. The governor of arizona vetoed a bill that would have given businesses the legal grounds to deny services to gay people. In texas a federal judge struck down that states ban on gay marriage and in kentucky a district judge said the state must recognize gay marriages that were performed in states where they are legal. Of course, these battles all across the country are far from over. Look at how much has changed. Republicans mitt romney, john mccain and even some fox news stars, all spoke out against the arizona bill. How much of a role did we in the media play here. Look at this Research Conducted by the Pew Research Center last summer around the gay marriage debate. It found that stories emphasizing support for gay marriage were five times as common as stories emphasizing opposition. So is the Media Coverage of this issue shaping americas changing attitudes . Or is it merely reflecting those changes that are happening anyway. Joining me to hash this out is ben shapiro columnist and editor at large for bright bart. Com and follow mass frank the author of whats the matter with kansas. Thank you both for joining me. Sure thing. Thanks so much. Tom, this cuts to the heart of what some people complained about for decade, the idea that media is biased in the case for liberals. Is that the case and what else accounts for the changing attitudes weve seen in all of the polling in recent years . Ive always been a big doubter of the liberal bias critique, although maybe this issue is different. If you go back and look at the long history of the bias critique goes back to we know when it started, spiro agnew in 1969 basically invented this as a way of getting back at the news media of the day that was, you know, that he thought was opposing the vietnam war and that sort of thing. And its, you know, its gone on and on over the years and the hilarious thing is that the media is objectively much less liberal today than it was then after years and years of this stuff. But, you know, this is a very interesting question. Does the media reflect or does it cause . And people debate this all the time in sociology and history, all sorts of other disciplines. I used to argue about it myself. Ben, where do you stand on this . Do you feel that the press either responsibly or irresponsibly encourages acceptance of gay marriage and laws that encourage gay rights . As far as the bias of media whether its reflective or genretive the fact it reflects l. A. And new york and generates feeling elsewhere. People tend to reflect the situations in which they live. The media is largely based in coastal large cities, liberal cities, and therefore their bias is reflective of those cities while changing the rest of the country. Is the press in this case an enemy of religious freedom then . We saw so much criticism of this bill from reporters and from commentators and from corporate interests . Absolutely. Absolutely an opponent to religious freedom. The press believes that essentially religious individuals should be forced to abide by whatever the presss standards of morality are. Youve seen people like tony cornhighser on espn suggest this law would force people gays in the state of arizona to wear yellow stars or gays and lesbians wouldnt be able to attend nfl football games. This has nothing to do with the law as written and designated to create the perception the American People are a bunch of bigots looking to crowbar gay people in the streets. Doesnt sound like the america i know. Hyperbole is common in the presence. Hell i deal in that stuff. Thats what i do, man. Can i just commentary and then the news media and those are two different things. Can i take a step back here . Im from kansas and my the thing that got me writing whats the matter with kansas when they had the debate over the theory of evolution in the state of kansas and the media all over the world went absolutely be zeshg, making fun of kansas. Its a replay of the monkey trial down in tennessee in the 1920s. It was a Classic Media set piece and everybody was laughing at kansas and then, you know, the local conservatives struck back saying yes, they didnt describe what we were doing precisely to the letter. They didnt get it exactly right. They had a point. But in the grand scheme of things, the media had that story right. I think they have this one right as well. Sorry. Thomas admitted the meeting is biased and skews the story but in general they have the story right. Explain how a law that doesnt mention homosexuality is about allowing restaurants to have a right that trumps federal law which this does not and how this law is going to allow restaurants to randomly throw gay people out of their businesses in a way they werent able to before in the state of arizona . Please explain that to me how thats accurate. Its not a law. It got vetoed. I dont know if you heard about this. A bill, correct. Yeah. So i didnt read that one but i did read the bill in kansas, you know. The actual law itself, the proposal itself, the bill that got vetoed the other day and they had one in kansas and a bunch of other states, thats, you know, the really interesting thing. Where did this come from . Who developed it. That sort of thing. You know, it was sort of my opinion is that it was all sort of gined up as a kind of culture war set piece to rally the troops, get something for people to feel persecuted about, get the voters worked up about the onslaught of, you know, liberals and the trial lawyers and the outside judges and that kind of thing. Fen fa then falling back on liberal bias is salvage a game thats been lost basically in my opinion. Ben, when you come on television, when you write columns, do you feel that you are being persecuted or do you feel you are being, you know, put in an uncomfortable position because everybody else seems to believe the opposite of what you believe . Im happy to be a liberal. I spent my life in los angeles in cambridge, i like being in liberal areas and duking it out. No question that the media is bias to the left and no question that the media is very much in favor of government that gets to control what religious people do with their private businesses. I mean, and do i feel persecuted in that way . Lets see. If the government decides it can tell me to violate ply own religious presets because the government has a greater good it is attempting to pursue without evidence that greater good is actually a necessity, anybody who compares the plight of 2014 g gays to blacks is absurd. We still have freedom of speech and im happy for you to be on the air, for you to be on the air thomas. I think there are more people like you than me. Awesome. You mean the press . That would be the craziest thing in the world. Im always the odd man out. I mean, if you know the day yeah, right i shouldnt go down this road but i have spent my entire life having extremely unpopular views, unpopular opinions, and i agree, thank god for the freedom of the press. This is, you know, thats its a wonderful thing. Im actually not even, you know, on the side that you probably think im on but as far as being on the defense, being from the right on a left network like cnn, of course im on the defensive and i go in with game planning for it. Its not the same thing as going on fox news which, obviously, leans to the right. Tell me about how you plan for it . Im curious. Were on the most meta show on cnn. How do you plan for it . Well, what i do is i assume that im going to get a certain set of questions from folks like you, brian, i generally do get, and with all the veiled implications there in. Dont you feel persecuted going on a leftist network being that i see myself as a victim. Dont you feel when you come on a leftist network being attacked because, you know, youre just a little intolerant. These are the way these conversations go. Im glad brian that you havent done all of those things. Youve done some of them. Of course when i go in i would be foolish not to think about the questions im going to be asked before doing so. And, of course, i have to say cnn does strive to be nonpartisan. I understand you feel it doesnt succeed at that all the time. At least it tries. Ben and thomas, thank you both for joining me for this one. Sure thing. Thanks so much. I have to take a quick break here but i want you to think about something during the break. Do you ever notice how often tv anchors say this could be another watergate . They say it a lot, right . Weve called in the expert, the guy one half of the team that uncovered the real deal. Carl bernstein will tell us if there is another watergate out there. Back in two minutes. 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That secured the data that directed the turbines that powered the farm that made the milk that went to the store that reminded the man to buy the milk that was poured by the girl who loved the cat. [ meows ] the internet of everything is changing everything. Cisco. Tomorrow starts here. Plays a key role throughout our lives. One a day mens 50 is a complete multivitamin designed for mens Health Concerns as we age. With 7 antioxidants to support cell health. One a day mens 50 . Welcome back to reliable sources. Lets talk about something we hear all the time on tv news programs. Could this scandal be the next watergate. It happens a lot especially with the big stories that dominate coverage on our competitor, fox, the right leaning network of choice, seems to be an obsession with benghazi. Trying to count the number of times they compared it to watergate and ran out of time. They do it a lot. On the left msnbc, its Chris Christie all the time. Listen to hbo bill maher give Rachel Maddow a hard time with that. I have been in love with msnbc, which i am still in love with msnbc, but i tongue in cheek said im going to have to break up with you because youve become obsessed with another man, Chris Christie. I am obsessed with christie story unapologetically and will continue while Amazing Things in that story continue to happen. This is an actual scandal. Its not watergate. Hes not the president. Hes not even a guy who ever himself said he was going to be running for president. You heard that word, watergate. Is it as big as Rachel Maddow seems to think it is. I brought in the best possible to ask, one half of the team that broke watergate open, carl bernstein, now a cnn commentator. Welcome. Good to be here. I was curious whether you agree more with bill maher or Rachel Maddow. Im probably in the middle for a number of reasons, not least of which is that were dealing here with ideologically driven cable networks. And that is not about rep per toirl decisions. Its about a lack of context. The christie story is great and important story. Should it be the lead every night on a real news broadcast . Of course not. Is Rachel Maddows broadcast a news broadcast . No. Its a commentary broadcast by and large and a point of view. I think that weve got much too much ratings driven by story rather than by actual content of the whole report over the course of a week or a month or a year, but rather, were moving in cable news toward what story will drive the ratings on a given day and that exaggerates and makes it impossible to have a context. Cable news was not invented during the actual watergate era. Do you think if there had been cable news white have lessened the stories in peoples minds . Would it have heightened peoples interests. I think history almost never works. Im not going to go there. When you hear bill maher and Rachel Maddow use the word watergate you probably stiffen your back a little bit. As i said on this broadcast before, calling what happened in new jersey bridgegate is unfair to the governor of new jersey. At the same time, i think hes in a hell of a mess. That he has not been as open and forthcoming as he has claimed to be. That theres ongoing investigations. At the same time he could open up his files the same things his lawyers are deciding to turn over to the investigations, he could open it up to the press. And also, bill mahers point about this is just about a Little Bridge closing is wrong. Because this is about the governor of a state who was the frontrunner for the president ial nomination, just as Hillary Clinton is the presumed frontrunner for the president ial nomination, and should be scrutinized and weight happened here is, that the allegations here are about the governor of a state and those closest to him putting peoples lives in danger. People who had the ambulances, peoples livelihoods, this kind of use for vengeance of a Governors Office is a big story and ought to be. It is not some kind of minor prank. We did hear him criticize the media again this week lets play the tape of governor christie speaking about that. You folks are the only people at the moment who are asking me about this. Ive been to two town Hall Meetings in the last two weeks and there hasnt been one question on this. I will be dammed if i let any of this stuff get in the way of doing my real job. The governor there is implying the public doesnt care about this. Only the press does. Either the governor is being totally disingenuous or worse, totally out of touch with his constituents. I was in monthchair, new jersey, the other night and thats all people there wanted to talk about, whats happening with Chris Christie and the bridge. Look, trying to make the conduct of the press the issue, is an old tactic, its not going to work here. The problem is the conduct of the people around the governor and perhaps the governor himself. Continuing to see more of these well find out what the answers are going to be. Seeing more of these dribs and drabs, not huge developments but dribs and drabs. New Text Messages from the governors aides making jokes about causing traffic problems outside a rabbis house and all flights to tel aviv being delayed its just a joke but does speak to a pattern of behavior, doesnt it . It isnt a joke. Theres no question about the awful aura of governor Christies Office and the way his aides operated. Thats a matter of fact. Its not a matter of opinion at this point. Theyre despicable in the way any they acted. Despicable, thats a strong word. They are in the way they acted and talk and have talked. The question is, what does that have to do with governor christie . Why did he allow people like this to work for him and were they authorized to do the things they did and when did he learn about what was done . Those are the questions he hasnt produced satisfactory answers yet. But at the same time, he deserves fairness in the media and he deserves fairness in the prosecutorial inquiry and well see where this story goes. We dont know the answers yet. It does not make people in the media happy to say we dont do not know the answers yet. We ought to be saying that a lot more in our coverage of all kinds of things. One of the most honest things we can say is that we dont know. Exactly. Come on. We dont have crystal balls and we also dont do enough reporting. So this is a story there has been good reporting on the story by the local newspapers, weeklies as well as dailies in northern new jersey and that actually is what Rachel Maddow has been basing a lot of her commentary on the stories produced by local media. One thing you can tell, what are the signs that a scandal is something a politician cant recover from . What signs do you look for . I tell you im not im not very good on how the citizenry responds to, quote, scandals. What happened in watergate is that as evidence became more and more undeniable that Richard Nixon had really presided over a criminal presidency and that it not only was about watergate but it was about a basic unconstitutional means of behavior, vengeance at his enemies, ordering break ins, fire bombings, saying terrible things on his tape recordings, as it became apparent to republicans that his conduct was indefensible, then this started to move and change and citizens along with it. To what extent i can tell how things work, thats part of the process. Weve got a new equation, though, in our Politics Today thats very disturbing. And that is that more and more people are not open in this country to the best obtainable version of the truth. Which really is what reporting is about, what Good Journalism is about, and instead do you mean close themselves off . Let me finish. Instead theyre looking to cable news, looking to the web, to find information that girds and that supports their already preconserved notions and ideologies and prejudices. Thats different than at the time of watergate. Many more people i believe were open to the best obtainable version of the truth then and we now have a kind of a twoway process in which we have these Media Outlets online, in cable news, feeding these prejudices, feeding these ideologies, without interest in truth and we dont know the extent to which the citizens are responsible, the media is responsible, and the political system is responsible, but theyre all irresponsible in this unwillingness to make truth and truth is hard to determine, but to make the best obtainable version of the truth the object of what theyre doing. Carl, thank you so much for being here. Good to be here. Time for a quick break. When i come back, a Supreme Court controversy. Some call it an outrage. Is Justice Clarence thomas doing his job . Youll want to hear this. Dont go away. Heres a word you should keep in mind unbiased. Some Brokerage Firms are but way too many arent. Why . Because selling their funds makes them more money. Which makes you wonder. Isnt that a conflict . Search proprietary mutual funds. Yikes then go to e trade. Weve got over 8,000 mutual funds and not one of them has our name on it. Were in the business of finding the right investments for you. E trade. Less for us, more for you. The funds prospectus contains its investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and other Important Information and should be read and considered carefully before investing. For a current prospectus visit www. Etrade. Com mutualfunds. This is the first power plant in the country to combine solar and natural gas at the same location. Being here. 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The other eight justices ask questions all the time of the lawyers presenting their cases to the court. Its how they figure out what the holes in the legal argument might be. According to jeffs this means thomas is tuned out. Why do we hear so little about this in the press. Joining me is Jeffrey Toobin and here in new york, jamal greene, professor at columbia law school. Jeff, let me start with you, why do you think we dont hear more in the press from reporters other than you about this lack of questioning from clarence tom mass . I think the people who cover the court take it for granted and it is true that Justice Thomas, he votes like the other justices, he writes opinions in the way the other justices do, he writes the same number give or take, and the oral argument is certainly not the most important part of being a supreme Court Justice but it is an important part and to me not asking questions nfor eight years is a dereliction of his job. In your column you called it a disgrace. Well because the only public thing that supreme Court Justices do other than render their opinions is hear argument and, you know, theres a reason why the phrase your day in court resonates for so many of us because, you know, when youre in court, you expect that the judge will hear you out, the judge will engage with your lawyer, and if you think about nine justices behaving the way thomas does, if you had nine justices who never asked questions, people would be outraged. I think the fact that thomas doesnt do it is Something Worthy of comment and thats why i talk about it. Jamal, do you agree if all nine acted this way it would be news worthy but not in this case . Well, i think it would be newsworthy if all nine acted this way. Thats in some ways exactly the point. Is youve got 30 minutes to make oral argument at the court for each side gets about 30 minutes and youve got eight other justices who are very active asking questions who are, in fact, in some ways asking too many questions, the lawyers can barely get a word in. I think theres something defensible about one of the justices simply saying look, im going to listen to what hear what the lawyers have to say. This is always a sensitive thing to bring up but i wonder, do you think this has anything to do with the fact hes the only africanamerican on the Supreme Court . Is that this some element of Political Correctness that leads this not to be talked about . When i read jeffs new yorker piece i was shocked it had been eight years since a question was asked. I dont see it as being any kind of Political Correctness. The people who cover the court are aware of this and in swome ways take it for granted. It was interesting, something i didnt expect, this piece got a lot of attention especially on social media and a lot of conservatives who, of course, like Justice Thomas accused me of racism in singling out Justice Thomas. I, of course, dont buy that but i thought, it was interesting about the sensitivity of these issues. I assure you if there was some other justice, man, woman, white, black, who didnt ask questions for eight years i would be talking about that justice too. But, you know, i was really struck by how that theme of how i was racially insensitive came up in social media among people who were criticizing me. I thought it was crazy but, you know, everybody is entitled. I do think that theres as jeff suggests a bit of a racial subtext in the criticism of Justice Thomas for not speaking. I dont think jeff does this, but ive certainly heard in talking to other law professors and the blogosphere and so forth people think the reason he doesnt speak is because hes not bright enough to sort of engage in the call low question with the other justices and i think thats not true. I mean i have amet the man. Hes a bright man. And he has said that others should take a cue from him talk less and listen more. I think theres something to be said for that. The modern Supreme Court where everyone is talking all the time, is extremely active, its actually a fairly recent phenomenon. Really not until about the 1980s did we start to see the court get this active. Look back to the warren court, to the 19th century and see benches that are totally silent letting the lawyers say what they want. Im not suggesting that thats the ideal, but the notion that theres something not being said on this Supreme Court strikes me as not very likely. I think jamal clearly makes an excellent point there, and, you know, one of the reasons its so outrageous, frankly, that Justice Thomas doesnt say anything, is that he has such a distinctive and important point of view on the law. He is by far the most conservative member of this court. He unfairly is criticized for just following along justice scal scalia. Thats not true at all. Hes well more conservative than justice scalia. It would be worth letting the public hear that in the Court Arguments as well as in the written opinion. Were in the midst of one of these renewed pushes for cameras in the courtroom. Do you think that would affect the dynamics were describing involving Justice Thomas . It might actually. Its one thing to have a reporter like me write a column every once in a while saying Justice Thomas doesnt speak but if you had cameras showing day after day, month after month, year after year all the other justices talking and thomas not talking i think it would add to the pressure on him to talk and add to the embarrassment thats yet another reason why unfortunately i dont think there are going to be cameras in the courtroom any time soon. Jeffrey toobin, jamal greene, thank you for joining me. Thank you. Before we go to break one timely note about the Supreme Court. We were just talking about why there are no cameras in the highest court. Turns out there was one briefly. Look at this video taken on the sly an unloaded to youtube this week. No Electronic Devices are supposed to be allowed in the court but a group that supports Campaign Finance reform snuck one in as a form of protest. All spectators are screened with magnetometers before entering not clear how they got away with it. Im glad they did its interesting to see a short glimpse inside that room. A whole lot more reliable sources ahead. Well be right back. [ female announcer ] you get sick, you cant breathe through your nose. Suddenly youre a mouthbreather. Well, put on a breathe right strip and instantly open your nose up to 38 more than cold medicines alone. So you can breathe and sleep. Shut your mouth and sleep right. Breathe right. Welcome back to reliable sources. Its not often that we hear president obama talk about his childhood, talk about what it was really like on thursday when he kicked off a program called my brothers keeper he said things like i got high and i made bad choices an the line that stood out, sometimes i sold myself short. Thats a personal subject for barack obama. How tough it is to beat the odds if youre a young black man in america. At the event a big laugh when he pointed out the two members of the media over my shoulder who were in attendance. If i can persuade, you know, sharpton and oreilly to be in the same meeting then it means that then it means that there are people of good faith who want to get some stuff done, even if we dont agree on everything. Hes talking about al sharpton of msnbc and bill oreilly of fox news. If you were watching msnbc or cnn at that hour, you heard obamas joke live. If you were watching fox news, you did not. Fox chose not to carry the president s deeply personal comments live, despite the fact that oreilly thought it was important enough to attend the event and Rupert Murdoch thought it was important enough to tweet about it on thursday. A later of the day oreilly devoted a chunk of his show to the initiative he did praise it, but he described what he would do differently. Youre going to have to get people like jayz, all right, kayne west, all of these gangster rappers to knock it off. Thats number one. They idolize these guys with the hats on backwards and the terrible rap lyrics and the drug and all of that. You got to get these guys. Bill oreilly, obama adviser, who would have thought. I love how he stretches jayzs name out like four syllables long. Jayzp. Back to the speech. Something of a pattern at fox news, they sometimes skip president ial events while other networks are showing them live. Sometimes fox says the speeches are predictable political events. I reached out to fox and the executive Vice President of news said the following, decisions are made all day long about what should be on the screen at any given time. As with every other event, we stream live news on our website to back up the top story. So does this famously right leaning network avoid giving air time to a left leaning president . My next guest monitors the cable news channel constantly, hes the media reporter for politico and joined me earlier from washington. Dylan, thanks for being here. Such a pleasure. Thanks for having me, brian. Let me ask the obvious question, if mitt romney was the president do you think fox news would be broadcasting more of his speeches . Absolutely. If you go back and look at when fox news broadcast speeches by george w. Bush youll see that they did so a lot more often than theyve done for president obama. Now does fox news need to broadcast every single speech or address or press conference that the president gives . No, probably not. I think its also fair to say that msnbc probably overdoes it. I mean if you turn on your television and you want to see if obama is speaking you can probably go to msnbc and if hes not there then hes probably not giving a public speech. Of course the average age of the fox news viewer is over the age of 65. The vast majority is white. I think the data from earlier in the year shows in the demo, the 25 to 54 demo that matters so much, only 2 of the audience is africanamerican. Do you think that plays a role in the decisions about what to cover an when to cover the president s speeches . Sure. I absolutely i do. I think the key issue is that fox news trusts that their viewership doesnt really care about obama. Now sometimes fox news will cover an obama speech and, in fact, give it even more coverage than the other networks if obama has to come out and say defend bad jobs numbers, account for something hes received a lot of pressure for. I will say in terms of why oreilly chose to cover this, i dont want to question oreillys intentions, dont want to suggest that i know what his motive was, i certainly dont. I think for the fox news viewership, they do sort of fox news loves to address this issue of race in to america and love to address it toward that older white audience and maybe trump up these causes for concern regarding, you know, the socalled gangster culture. So i think that was sort of in a way to talk about those problems was a strange sort of appeal to that old white audience and sort of a very perverse and troubling way. Some big media news involving cnn that happened this peerg. Piers morgan said hell be ending his nightly show, piers morgan live. It will be ending sometime in the coming weeks, no end date yet. Something he said to the new york times, david carr, who broke the news, he said, look, im a british guy debating american cultural issues, including guns, which is very polarizing, and there is no doubt there are many in the audience tired of me banging on about it. I asked him to talk about it with us. He said, im still negotiating with jeff zucker, the head of cnn, over a new show, one that plays much more to my strengths, big interviews. But its clear sometimes in the coming weeks piers morgan live will be ending and there are all sorts of reasons, peoples speculation about why the show is ending. Whats your take on why its going away . Well, a number of things are at play. I mean, what pierce said, theres probably some truth to that. I certainly think americans dont like being certainly american who is support or are against gun control dont like being talked down to by a dismissive brit. Now, there might be a bigger problem as well, which is just the nature of the Television Industry in general. You know, piers morgans ratings werent all that much worse than larry kings when he left. I think is there still a place in cable news for this sort of oneonone interview on a nightly basis when there isnt always major news and sort of major bookings for these interviews. And, you know, the other question that i think cnn has to think about is, you know, the age in which the bookings define the show, we might be be seeing that coming to an end. Right . If you look at the two most popular shows on fox and on msnbc, those are shows with the least bookings because they have outsized personalities sitting behind the desk. You have bill oreilly at fox news, mRachel Maddow at msnbc. Piers morgan just might not be the right size personality that american viewers wanted to see in that share. Dylan byars, thanks for joining me. My pleasure. Thanks, brian. Quick break here. When i come back, something will happen tonight with the oscars that has never happened before. Hey guys sorry were late. Did you run into traffic . No, just had to stop by the house to grab a few things. You stopped by the house . Uhhuh. Yea. Alright, whenever you get your stuff, run upstairs, get cleaned up for dinner. You leave the house in good shape . Yea. Yea, of course. 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With just a few dabs, its clinically proven to seal out more food particles so youre more comfortable and confident while you eat. A lot of things going on in my life and the last thing i want to be thinking about is my dentures. [ charlie ] try zinc free super poligrip. Finally this morning, a media note about tonights academy awards. You might be able to watch the oscars on your phone. If youre not near a tv and you want to watch the red carpet coverage, yo oar in luck. This is the first year abc will let people watch a live stream on computers, tablets and phones. In the past, the backstage cameras and stuff like that, this year, the actual telecast will be well cast. Of course there is a catch. There always is. The oscars will be part of that same tv everywhere scheme and many Media Companies have adopted it. Youll have to log in through a cable or satellite provider abc has a deal with, and it will only work in the specific big cities where abc owns tv stations. Its taking far too long for this tv everywhere idea to live up to the name. All of the cable providers and channels are partly to blame for the delays. But this is progress. You know, the oscars are the second biggest tv show every year behind the super bowl. And now at least some people dont have to watch it on tv if they dont want to. Thats all for this televised edition of reliable sources. You can always watch all of our segments on cnn. Com. Weve got so much more on the web including my own oscar ballot for tonight and ball lots for many other cnn anchors and reporters. Hope to see you back here next sunday at 11 00 a. M. Eastern. Stay tuned for a news update from cnn headquarters in atlanta then state of the union with Candy Crowley. Good morning. Im erin mcpike in washington with a czech of our top stories. Ukraines Prime Minister says the country is on the brink of disaster and russias latest military moves amount to a declaration of war and called it a red alert. Officials say Russian Troops have taken up posts at bases in crimea. Secretary of state john kerry said today on cbs face the nation, this is an invasion. Its an incredible act of aggression. It is really a stunning, willful choice by president putin to invade another country. Russia is in violation of the sovereignty of ukraine. Russia is in violation of its international obligations. And president obama spoke to russian president putin about the situation for 90 minutes yesterday. More than 100 Million People could be at the mercy of a major winter storm pushing east right now. It already has proven deadly in pars of the u. S. This weekend. At least one person died saturday and 20 more were injured after accidents on a major denver interstate. The storm now threatens to dump more snow in cities across the midwest, southeast, and northeast through monday. And were hours away from the oscars, but will the storm affect the show . Our meteorologist tells us just ahead. State of the union with Candy Crowley starts right now. Russia must stop its military activities and its threats. This is the red alert. This is not the threat. This is actually the declaration of war to my country. In order that was the nato secretarygeneral then the acting Prime Minister of ukraine