Have to understand one thing, that america does lead the world. It is extraordinary you have the leading candidate in the republican side saying torture first, ask questions later. Ive been saying for years that president obama strategy of containing isis is dangerous and puts the entire world at risk. And Hillary Clinton, the architect of the libya mess, doesnt steam have a strategy either. You look at ted cruz talking about orwellian presences in american neighborhoods where muslims live, its the exact thing that were supposed to do. Is the press turning the tragedy into another ideological blame game . Plus, millions more in damages against gawker for proposing that sex tape of hulk hogan who slammed his adversary to the mat. I will be naked forever. You know . Until my childrens childrens children die because of the internet. Well talk about the impact on journalistic freedom with a fox reporter who just interviewed hulk. Im howard kurtz and this is media buzz. Mrs. Trump made an unwanted appearance in the campaign when the pact make america awesome posted this on facebook, a nude image from her modelling days warning this could be americas next first lady unless people vote for ted cruz. Trump responded with this tweet which we quickly deleted then restored after others found it. Wow, senator ted cruz that, is some low level ad did you using a picture of melani nah a gq shoot. Be careful or ill spill the beans about your wife. First trump was classless an a coward to attack heidi. Both of them responded to reporters. You probably know by now that most of the things that donald trump says have no basis in reality. I dont get angry often. But you mess with my wife and you mess with my kids, that will do it every time. Donald, jur a coward and leave heidi the hell alone. Then there were the unproven allegations in the National Enquirer which well get to in a moment. Joining me, dale trotter, commentator that writes for the daily caller on the hill and Ashley Parker and a cohost of outnumbered. Ashley, ordinarily i would say, wow, there is really low stuff. But the two frontrunners slamming each other, how can journalists resist . Exactly. It became part of the discussion and theyre going back and forth. I think it is a little salacious and a little fun. But it also sort of speaks you admit that its fun . I admit that its fun, not good for democrat sishgs but fun. And, you know, also sort of speaks to as senator cruz said, it speaks to character and what voters are looking for. I was at a focus group in st. Louis and among those who didnt love donald trump, one of the things they mngsed it is wasnt substantive. It was stylistic. This helps voters make that stylistic impression of this is someone we want in the oval office. Which is the more important story among the competing themes for the press . Trumps bringing to the defense of his wife, blaming cruz for a 300 ad that had nothing to do with the Cruz Campaign or cruz with a sound bite that weve seen 10,000 times calling donald a snibling coward . I disagree with ashley. I say this coverage is not fun and that it demonstrates a warfare by donald trump. And you have the things that the media can be reporting on, those three different things. So youre embarrassed by the coverage . I would say im disheartened by the coverage. And the media is treating this as a said, she said. Donald trump does what no other candidates are willing to do. And he goes places that no other candidates are willing to go. And so in this case, the media covering it, like cruz is doing the same thing as trump is doing, when cruz complimented Donald Trumps wife and as you noted, donald trump retweeted an insulting picture of heidi cruz and made a commentary as well. Side by side pictures. Yes. Julie, trump said he might have to spill the beans on heidi cruz and there was speculation this may have to do with period, a decade ago when she was going through depression and strain in her marriage. Thats been reported by the New York Times and others. So what did you make of that particular tactic . The tactic that donald trump once again is going in the gutter. I she is right this is not symetrical. The reality is that ted cruz had nothing to do with this ad but this pact did nothing more than put out a picture that Melania Trump posed for. Its not even a picture of her. Its not even a hulk hogan situation that got hacked. Its been on the internet. Donald trump himself seemed very proufd it. He has a beautiful wife and she has a right to pose wherever she wants. You have donald trump, instead of coming o out and saying, listen, im proud of my wife. This is what she did in her career. Im proud she made the cover of gq and goes to attack heidi cruz reminds me of when Osama Bin Laden and 9 11. One had nothing to do with the other. Poor heidi cruz ends up a victim in all of this. And the media has been covering it as a tit for tat and donald trump was clearly in the wrong and ted cruz had nothing to do with this. Cruz has seized on this. And he should. Of course he should. Ad as well he should. Megyn kelly tweeted, seriously . Donald trump has taken plenty of shots at her. But the reporter story now, there is one in your paper, democratic strategy is to portray trump as an unabbased sexist. Trumps critics see the latest a ain a troubling pattern. And then trump in his Twitter Response said the press is going out of its way to convince people i dont like or respect women when just the opposite is true. I think when the media covers this and reports on what donald trump is doing, it is sort of exactly, it gets to a pattern, right . A pattern of character. As you said, when trump retweeted that, can you argue that him not just justifying heidi cruz and being unfair to her but objectifying his wife. The media reports on whats going on with donald trump p and megyn kelly and what donald trump said about car lee fiorina and what he is now saying about heidi cruz and even his wife, then voters can draw their conclusions. Is this a pattern of behavior . Typically when they see a pattern, thats when it sticks in the eejer and makes an impression. Trump is taking the position that it is the press creating or embellishing this pattern. Let me turn to this other matter now. We were not planning to touch this story about ted cruz and the National Enquirer because this particular story right here offers no concrete evidence of cruz supposedly, algdzly having multiple affairs. But the senator was quick to denounce it. Let me be clear. This National Enquirer story is garbage. It is complete and utter lies. It is a tabloid smear. And it is a smear that has come from donald trump and his henchmen. We have the opposite problem. There is no evidence that trump or his campaign was behind this storey. Trump says in a statement he has no idea whether the piece is true and didnt know about it and absolutely nothing to do with it. Gale, the dilemma for the press here is whether to run with these unproven allegation thats use words like rumors, quoting snitches, saying things like supposedly. They shouldnt run with it. The story itself shows that the National Enquirer has a complete lack of evidence under the law a public figure has to have a much higher standard to prove defamation. And thats why if you look at the article itself, it conceals the identity of the five women in this story. And so for the press to run with this, it shows that they are taking something that is not sourced that, does not have evidence and trying to insert it in president ial campaign. I think many news organizations, not all, were trying to ignore it. But then as we just played, senator cruz added the meeting with reporters and not in response to a specific question brought it up. How should that change the equation . I think it makes it more complicated certainly. I think there are rumors have been around for a while in washington and a lot of Media Organization dz nothing with them. Didnt even try to report them out. They appear, the National Enquirer and the morning begins and everyone is thinking were is muck. You know, its unproven. There is no names. You know, no name sources. The New York Times was not planning to follow up. I dont think it was something we were going to report on, no. But then when senator ted cruz and brings it out unprompted, we do report on what the candidates say and hes using it to attack donald trump. Again, it sort of becomes injected into the discussion. This is the flip side of what you were saying in taking issue with trump blaming ted cruz for the independent pacts picture. This morning on abc trump said he thinks that cruz came pain may have bought the rights to the picture and given it to this small pact. I dont see any evidence of. That but cruz is making a very serious dirty tricks charge here by blaming it on trump and it seems he doesnt have any evidence to back up. He doesnt. He can potentially lly be defa donald trump saying he planted the story. Although we probably suspect he probably did. You suspect . Exactly right. Exactly right. But look what donald trump has done to the press. This is a great scam thm weekend. He did a very detailed story with Maggie Abrams in the New York Times where he talked about his vision for the country if he were president. For over an hour and a half. Full of detail that frankly were head spinning to a lot of us. Nobody is really focused on. That instead, were spending time talking about whether ted cruz may have had affairs with one to five women, whether this is a hulk hogan situation where Melania Trumps picture got bought by him despite the fact that its in the public domain. And so this is why he is so brilliant at playing the press. Were not talking about substance. Were talking about essentially what hulk hogan was talking about in the trials. By the way, the ener quirer s it is true that trump is friendly with the sceo of the n enquirer and only one of trumps friends is quoted. I dont that i is good enough for journalistic standards. Ive done a lot of reporting on the enquirer. It was correct about john edwards and having a love trial and tiger woods having mistresses, sometimes its a way of getting sources to come out of the wood work. They hope to get to a more did he fintive story. Twint play a moment. This is how they were acknowledging the National Enquirer story. This say moment with cnn and then two guests, one was adrian cohen, a boston harold columnist who happens to support donald trump and the other guest was Amanda Cochran who had worked until fairly recently with ted cruz. Look at what happened. I would like ted cruz to issue a statement whether or not the National Enquirers story is true that he has had affairs with many women including you were named, amanda. Will you denounce this story . Or will counsel firm it. Lets be very clear. Cnn has no reporting on what youre talking about coming from the National Enquirer. Amanda, go ahead. What is out there is tabloid trash f someone wants to comment on it, they can talk to my lawyer. And it is categorically false. You should be ashamed for spreading this kind of smut. Yeah. Im just speechless thinking about cnn and baldwin and the anchor allowing her to go on National Television on a station like cnn and republish that defamation. It is really shocking that she didnt cut off the discussion right away. Yeah. Its hard to react in a moment. Kate baldwin should not have let it go on. She had to give amanda a chance to respond and she did very forcefully. But it kind of made me cringe that this unsubstantiated allegation was repeated. Were setting a precedent where somebody can say on television will you stop beating your wife and you have to respond to this allegation. Inexcusable. I dont i have a lot of sympathy for kate baldwin. She cut it off. Adrian cohen owe this is woman a huge apology. Fwhut is where we got to in the cycle. This is what were talking about. Were talking excuse me, women are having arguments with each other. Let me get in here. Foxs got a story on hulk hog hogans trial and the bombing in brussels and how they changed the 2016 campaign. Citracal pearls. Delicious berries and cream. Soft, chewable, calcium plus vitamin d. Only from citracal. Only fr citracal. It was always just a hobby. Something you did for fun. Until the day it became something much more. And that is why you invest. The best returns arent just measured in dollars. Td ameritrade. In new york state, we believe tomorrow starts today. All across the state, the economy is growing, with creative new business incentives, and the lowest taxes in decades, attracting the talent and companies of tomorrow. Like in buffalo, where the largest solar gigafactory in the western hemisphere will soon energize the world. And in syracuse, where imagination is in production. Let us help grow your companys tomorrow today at business. Ny. Gov hours after the terror attacks in brussels, donald trump accepted an invitation to go on the today show and Hillary Clinton denied. That kicked off a fierce debate among the pundits and the candidate. Its what donald trump said about water boarding that had Hillary Clinton responding and quickly. For Hillary Clinton, a chance to prove her National Security credentials. For donald trump, an opportunity to see seem more president ial one day after calling for controversial cuts to nato. Donald trump and ted cruz pushing controversial plans to fight isis. Hillary clinton says theyre guilty of being bigots. Have the belgian bombings, what a tragedy, push the media into a more serious debate about terrorism . I would hope that that would be the case. But i dont think so. I think any time you have a terrorist attack in the west, we have wall to wall it 24 7 coverage of the attack because audiences want to know the details. They want to know what happens. But as soon as that the details are released, the coverage dies down and then the press cant really come forward with any information that public wants. Like they want to know how do we defeat the bad guys . And do you does the press have any credible information about imminent threats . And the media doesnt come up with that. So then we dont get into the bigger debate about how do we handle this. At least until we all got diverted into the stuff we were talking about, this was a story for the reporters. I think it was. It is not only something we covered in term of the event itself but in terms wlaf the candidates were saying about it. But i think it also changed the lens through which we viewed what they were saying about it. So, for instance, before the attack, donald trump unveiled five Foreign Policy advisors that were not known in the community. He made comments about some of them are. Getting out of nato and then or at least adjusting the role. Yeah. And then those comments are sort of viewed through a different lens after the attacks and thanlt view, 100 minutes with the New York Times on Foreign Policy, i think we may have talked about other things. I think it led our home page and front page. I think people are interested in reading that. This man could be commander in chief. Are we in a post attack climate now where they slam Hillary Clinton on takerism . We are and its going to continue until the election is over. I fear its going to continue even after the president is sworn in because the building behind us is so completely polarized to the point where there is no working with anybody anymore. I remember being here on 9 11. I dont remember this coverage after 9 11 where people were turning on each other and assigning blame. I fear this is the new normal for us among the public at large. That was a time when the country did come together. Ashley, do you think the media overplayed this story . Lets put up pictures here. President obama stayed in cuba after the brussels bombing, didnt cut short the trip and went to a baseball game. The optics were not great. Yeah. You know, the president got a lot of criticism and conservative media for. This his response was that, you know, the goal of terrorism is sort of to disrupt our ordinary lives and he was not going to disrupt his life. It didnt seem to me like a huge story. It was certainly something where you had kind of that polarizing commentary and think what conservatives sail versus what liberals say. Gale, going on to argentina and dancing the tango with that woman, you also thought that was unseemly. Is that a controversy . Definitely. And the conservative media covered it. It was picked up by Mainstream Media as well. Certainly there are pictures of him with the tango dancer were very dramatic contrast to the people leading bleeding in the of brussels. The misstep was so briefly addressing the belgian bombings and going back to leave aside the fact these are things do you whether you visit the other countries. All right. Thank you very much for joining us this sunday. Up next, more on how the media are covering the belgian bombing case and whether that story will soon fade. Later, charles krout hammer an missing Donald Trumps appeal to republicans and whether its too late for conservatives to stop him. Is hey this is lloyd. To prove to you that the better choice for him is aleve. Hes agreed to give it up. Ok, but i have 30 acres to cover by sundown. Well be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. Yeah, i was ok, but after lunch my knee started hurting again so. More pills. Yep. Another pill stop. Can i get my aleve back yet . For my pain. I want my aleve. Get all day minor arthritis pain relief with an easy open cap. The awful news from brussels broke last week and joining us from new york, a columnist for media ice. Television news devoted a lot of resources to this story with anchors like lester holt, matt lauer and others going to brussels. How long will this focus last . I think it will last fairly long time. What were seeing here is the media is correctly using th