Transcripts For FOXNEWSW MediaBuzz 20180903 : comparemela.co

They made a mistake. They are reluctant to withdraw it because there is an animosity towards this president that is unprecedented. Its clouding their judgment. Howie lanny davis will be here in a media exclusive. The media tributes to john mccain transformed into taking a shot at President Trump. A rightleaning catholic news out let ran a letter from the archbishop demanding that the pontiff resign. Pope francis making a point not to weigh in after explosive allegations were leveled against him by a former official saying i told the pope about accusations against an american cardinal years ago and the pope did nothing. Howie is this largely a political attack from the popes critics . The president says google is biased against him, and guy as the against conservatives. Is that true . Im howard kurtz and this is mediabuzz. Whether you agree or disagree with the president calling for the firing of jeff zucker and andy lack, its big news. The only msnbc comment we could find was on morning joe. Not only is he attacking andy lack with stupid rumors, but also hes going after the truth. Howie cnn is standing by this story. Sources with knowledge tell myself and carl that Michael Cohen claims then candidate donald trump knew about the meeting in trump tower. Howie the president addressed the Airport Company saying at t should fire jeff d. Bernstein of watergate fame called trump an authoritarian. This is the greatest journalistic challenge in the modern era. Its worse than watergate. Howie cnn says make no mistake, mr. President , cnn does not lie. Joining me, mollie hemingway, susan ferrechio, and phillipe reines. Mollie i say the president has every right to speak out but did he go too far calling for the media companys heads to be fired . Mollie its not just about calling for firing. Its the language. As a mother its something i dont like to see. There are lines being crossed. Cnn is having a rough go of things. Andy lack is rumored to be central to so many of the problems they are facing there. Howie rumors, though. Mollie its an interesting story but its not appropriate for the president to be weighing in. Howie jeff zucker who is recovering from heart surgery said donald trump is trying to delegitimize journalism. What do you make of the tone cnn usinged when it hit back. Susan the president is trying to delegitimize journalism because journalists have tried to delegitimize the president. The types of attacks by the media, a lot of them had to be corrected. A lot have not been corrected. I think alls fair here for both sides. It has devolved to a boxing match. The gloves are off. Thats what happened. Howie if president obama who took lots of shots at fox news, if he said you ought to get rid of roger ails, what would have been the reaction on the right . I saw Alan Dershowitz say thats a problem. Its supposed to be adversarial. But if you look at whats going on with jeff zucker and andy lack, the president is constantly trying to muddy the waters. Andy lack might have separate problems. Its fitting his narrative that the lester holt interview was wrong. The problem calling jeff zuckers firing is trying to insert himself into the at t merger. Donald trump should send jeff zucker flowers for everything he has done for him. Howie the president went after him in personal terms. He called bernstein sloppy, a man who lives in the past. Carl bernstein defended himself in his own tweet saying i have spent my life as a journalist. No taunt will diminish my commitment to that mission. Mollie there is a fantasy held by the media that they hold democratic administrations accountable. Many americans were awake during the last administration. And they saw how the administration was tweeted. Carl bernstein has an image of himself im not sure is matched by reality. They claimed he wasnt a source, they put that in the original thing. And he declined to comments. And they have not done anything near what they need to to deal with the problems with that story. Now they are trying to strongly suggest the other story is Michael Cohen himself. And they need to restore credibility. They have a pattern of false stories on the Trump Administration and this is the latest one. Howie does cnn have to do more than put out a onesentence statement. And to report on the president s attacks on the network. It may be uncomfortable, but its news. Phillipe every media outlet has the responsibility to call balls and strikes. I disagree with mollie describing the obama white house. But cnn said they made a mistake. Ed the source mai made a mis. Mollie cnn is standing by its story. Phillipe they are saying they have another source. I dont know any better. But they made a mistake. When fox is reporting on seth ridge. It took months before anyone acknowledged there was a mistake. Howie the online story was retracted, not months later. So trump says the good news about andy lack is about to be fired question mark for incompetence. Its purely a rumor, i just want to clarify that. Two days after the president fired jim im. Lets take a brief look at that interview. President trump regardless of the recommendation i was going to fire comey, flowing was no good time to do it. This russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. Howie the president treats when lester holt got caught fudging my tape they were misleading. Susan the transcript is all there. He said he didnt care about the investigation. He says things that undercut that statement we just watched. But hes trying to make it look like they fudged a story and they really didnt. Each side is accusing the other of fake news and lying, he probably can convince some of his base and people who follow him on twitter that there is truth on that. Howie we have don mcghan leaving. 11 days after the New York Times story saying mcghan spent 30 hours with muellers investigators. The media seemed sympathetic to Jeff Sessions after new taunts by the president. Interesting that the media is taking sessions side. Mollie its very good to cover the fact that donald trump is dissatisfied with his attorney general. But they go beyond that in deciding its inappropriate for the president to make decisions about who his attorney general is or is not. Its important they explain why people are upset with Jeff Sessions. He recused himself from the investigation going on in the department of justice and people want to see the rule of law equally applied. Howie a Washington Times report that he told bloomberg sessions is safe. Everything leaks in this white house. All these backstage struggles play out on twitter and the tube. Phillipe if you want to fire him, fire him. The president has not fired anyone since jim comey on this matter because he knows how horribly that went for him. He could fire Jeff Sessions right now, but it wont go well for him. And its not the media pressing him on that. The fact that Lindsey Graham and Charles Grassley changed their tune shows you how long it has bent Republican Congress has been saying to him, dont do this. It point go well. It wont go well. Mollie the way it was portrayed as obstruction investigation is a perfect example of how the media control the conversation in a way that is not helpful. Phillipe its a lie to say that tape is not real. Mollie you can have Media Coverage that is inaccurate. Howie exclusive interview with lanny davis. When we come back, a week of media praise after john mccains passing. Why did many pundits turn that into an attack on donald howie the speakers at john mccains funeral jed, george w. Bush, barack obama, his daughter megyn not only praised the man but seemed to rebuke the man who wasnt there. An emotional she row sendoff kept straining at the criticism of donald trump. To watch the president not saying anything about this hero, this lion of a man is despicable. Mccain december spied trump. Trump for his part despised trump right back and neither man pretended otherwise. Howie political lead story, washington warns President Trump. Ridiculous. I think the tucker quote was perfect. They did hate each other. Mccain really hated trump and he doesnt like the people who follow trump, the tea partyers. Thats why sara palin was shut out of the funeral. To expect the president to go on and on about what a hero mccain is. Mccain went to get the dossier and bring it back to the fbi, creating a huge investigation to topple his presidency. Howie it was almost as if you couldnt praise the senator and his life as a warrior and lawmaker without bashing the president. Mollie its a shame. This man is a legitimate American Hero and people regardless of their political views could appreciate. People remember what happened when he ran for president when he was not treated as a lion or hero by the same media. Howie when he ran against george w. Bush he got extraordinarily good coverage. Hillary clinton praised mccain as did obama and biden. Given mccain had an extraordinary life over many decades, were the media doing something of a disservice by making so much of this about the contrast with President Trump . Phillipe i think at the end of the day only the mccain flame can say whether this got away from them or not. What i think is the man is dead, to put it on the equivalency of what the president did last week and what john mccain couldnt do. Put the flag up. Put it down to halfmast. This stuff is silly. Susan what has he said thats negative about mccain this week . Nothing. He lowered the flag. He could have said dont put it back up. Then he pretty much went radio silence on mccain despite all the attacks. Howie when you have a funeral and two former president s with an implicit rebuke of trump. That was part of the story, Meghan Mccain as well. But im talking more about the commentators. It became like the two stories were intertwined. Washington used to be such a good bipartisan place and that was the john mccain we loved. President trump has changed donald trump single handedly change the entire culture. Mollie they put it forth because it does represent what washington, d. C. Thinks. This is a complex story and there are some things people disagree with that are happening politically in d. C. That havent been well represented this week. Howie lanny davis on why he outed himself as an anonymous source in that cnn story. The president says google is rigged against him and conservatives. Howie President Trump is giving it to google saying its search process is possibly illegal. That they have it rigged. Fake cnn is prominent. Donald trump google, facebook and twitter, i think they treat conservatives and republicans very unfairly. I have personal experience. Howie google may have flaws in the way it tweaks the algorithms. But could they be rigging all searches against con rshes and the republican party. Because there are human beings behind the algorithms some biases is a factor. Google could prove its not biased by showing you the algorithm. But can you imagine how many people would exploit that . Game the system. I can assure you it would not lead to a more balanced list in your search. Howie this is based on a blogger on a conservative site who ran a test, trump news and found the results were antitrump. So is that enough to warrant this sort of president ial blast . Shana the article struck a chord with people following recent coverage about buys at tech companies. What concerns me is there was a woman who sat behind a few Different Computers and its caused such an uproar from censorship to calling for federal investigation. Its mismatched to the actual study that was performed. Howie who is going to tress the government to decide the perfect balance in all news searches. When cnn or Washington Post or New York Times pops up in these ranking. Doesnt google reward the most of popular websites . Yes. Its hard to translate the journalistic values into a set of rules they use and apply to every one. Google weighs traffic to sites, and that plays against these smaller sites with maybe a handful of reporters putting out a few stories a day versus dozens of stories being put out by the Washington Post or other Mainstream Media organizations. Howie you are saying Google Rewards that. Its not necessarily an ideological decision. People click on it and google things it must be relevant. Shana its not a nefarious decision behind the bias. Howie there is a reason people dont trust big tech. But in googles case, im not sure it has been proved. Ahead on mediabuzz. An explosive charge against pope francis in the sexual abuse scandal. First, lanny davis sits down with me exclusively on the lesson he says hes learned from the cnn controversy. Howie lanny davis has been making the rounds saying his client pled guilty and may have more information. Cnn went with a story that cohen knows the president had advance knowledge of the meeting with a russian lawyer at trump tower. So Michael Cohen does not have information that President Trump had knowledge of the meeting at the trump tower beforehand. No, he does not. Howie you had a rough week which well get to in just a second. You say Rudy Giuliani openly admitted his purpose is to appeal to the trump base and get ready for an impeachment battle. When i was covering the clinton impeachment thats what you and your allies tried to do to ken starr. Lanny and it appears we were successful in molding public opinion. Howie how do you criticize rudy for make similar tactics. Lanny i dont criticize his tactics if his concern is impeachment. We were talking about and subject that was personal indiscretion. This is a unanimous verdict by the intelligence communities that there was an effort by the kremlin to influence the American People to vote for donald trump. And he denied that. And Rudy Giuliani could focus on collusion or lack of evidence. Instead hes making personal attacks on mueller. The late senator john mccain reminded me attacking the motives of mr. Starr was a mistake. Howie you said i have my regrets by attacks on starrs motives. You said told me you made a mistake in your dealing with cnn. Where did you go wrong. Lanny i respect cnn. I have known jeff zucker for years. I respect them as journalists. I took this responsibility because i was unsure about the issue of the trump tower meeting. I thought there were other people who could have been in the room and it was up to journalists to go look at that. Howie did you ever confirm to cnn reporters this allegation about the trump tower meeting. Lanny i was never sure in my confirmation. I was uncertain. In fact i expressed my uncertainty, but not clear enough. I can understand they interpreted what i said as a confirmation and i have not blamed cnn, i blamed myself for not being more clear. In my mind i did not know the details about that meeting and i should not have encouraged any reporter. The lesson i learned. Im not certain even on back ground i should not be asking reporters to do investigateddive work when im not sure. Howie does did bother you that a lot of reports say lanny davis confirmed this then backed off and recanted. Lanny it does bother me because recanting isnt ease yesterday. I disclosed myself as a source. And i was very unclear in that. So yes. But i thought it was important not to blame cnn or anyone other than myself. I even wrote a book about taking responsibility. So this hasnt been an easy week for me. For everybody who deals with the media, this is a lesson, maybe a teaching moment moment. Dont float stories on background which is our expression for anonymously, unless you have a certainty of the facts and you are asking reporters to confirm those facts. Howie you drew flack for an interview with Anderson Cooper where you said you were not a source for cnn. Is that true. Lanny i apologized for saying something that was not intentionally misleading. In my mind i wasnt sure of that story that was published so i didnt think of myself as a source for that story. Im sorry i didnt explain myself better to Anderson Cooper. I have no excuse other than it wassing a long day and i should have expanded on my sentence. I dont blame either mr. Bernstein or mr. Shudow. It certainly is a learning moment for me. Howie you are saying as Michael Cohens lawyer you dont believe your client had any direct knowledge that the president knew in advance about the trump tower meeting with the russian lawyer. Am i right . Lanny i cant tell you what will cohen has told me. But i am not sure he did and it requires additional reporting. And i am not sure he did not. I know there is a lot of fuzzy memories here. There are people in and out of the room with mr. Trump all the time. I have heard people say of course he knew, his son would have told him ahead of time. Thats the key mistake. I take the responsibility. An assumption is not a fact. Howie you are coming forward saying you made a mistake. And its rare in washington. Is there a difference in the way things get processed in the media. Lanny when i wrote my book on the election and i saw jim im through data as the reason for an illegitimate presidency it was the result of an intervention by james comey. The data shows after october 28, Hillary Clintons polls plunged. Howie there are a lot of the reasons she lost. Lanny when i wrote the book i didnt use the word lie. Lice an intentional will fus misstatement. That was not me when i talked to Anderson Cooper or cnn. It was a mistake but not intentional. James comey knew what edtold congress. Not that i will disclose something even 11 days from the election. I will take a look first. During this interviews he never said im sorry, i made a mistake the way donald trump will never say im sorry i made a mistake the way im saying i am sorry, i made a mistake. Howie your critics say you are a big President Trump<\/a>. A rightleaning catholic news out let ran a letter from the archbishop demanding that the pontiff resign. Pope francis making a point not to weigh in after explosive allegations were leveled against him by a former official saying i told the pope about accusations against an american cardinal years ago and the pope did nothing. Howie is this largely a political attack from the popes critics . The president says google is biased against him, and guy as the against conservatives. Is that true . Im howard kurtz and this is mediabuzz. Whether you agree or disagree with the president calling for the firing of jeff zucker and andy lack, its big news. The only msnbc comment we could find was on morning joe. Not only is he attacking andy lack with stupid rumors, but also hes going after the truth. Howie cnn is standing by this story. Sources with knowledge tell myself and carl that Michael Cohen<\/a> claims then candidate donald trump knew about the meeting in trump tower. Howie the president addressed the Airport Company<\/a> saying at t should fire jeff d. Bernstein of watergate fame called trump an authoritarian. This is the greatest journalistic challenge in the modern era. Its worse than watergate. Howie cnn says make no mistake, mr. President , cnn does not lie. Joining me, mollie hemingway, susan ferrechio, and phillipe reines. Mollie i say the president has every right to speak out but did he go too far calling for the media companys heads to be fired . Mollie its not just about calling for firing. Its the language. As a mother its something i dont like to see. There are lines being crossed. Cnn is having a rough go of things. Andy lack is rumored to be central to so many of the problems they are facing there. Howie rumors, though. Mollie its an interesting story but its not appropriate for the president to be weighing in. Howie jeff zucker who is recovering from heart surgery said donald trump is trying to delegitimize journalism. What do you make of the tone cnn usinged when it hit back. Susan the president is trying to delegitimize journalism because journalists have tried to delegitimize the president. The types of attacks by the media, a lot of them had to be corrected. A lot have not been corrected. I think alls fair here for both sides. It has devolved to a boxing match. The gloves are off. Thats what happened. Howie if president obama who took lots of shots at fox news, if he said you ought to get rid of roger ails, what would have been the reaction on the right . I saw Alan Dershowitz<\/a> say thats a problem. Its supposed to be adversarial. But if you look at whats going on with jeff zucker and andy lack, the president is constantly trying to muddy the waters. Andy lack might have separate problems. Its fitting his narrative that the lester holt interview was wrong. The problem calling jeff zuckers firing is trying to insert himself into the at t merger. Donald trump should send jeff zucker flowers for everything he has done for him. Howie the president went after him in personal terms. He called bernstein sloppy, a man who lives in the past. Carl bernstein defended himself in his own tweet saying i have spent my life as a journalist. No taunt will diminish my commitment to that mission. Mollie there is a fantasy held by the media that they hold democratic administrations accountable. Many americans were awake during the last administration. And they saw how the administration was tweeted. Carl bernstein has an image of himself im not sure is matched by reality. They claimed he wasnt a source, they put that in the original thing. And he declined to comments. And they have not done anything near what they need to to deal with the problems with that story. Now they are trying to strongly suggest the other story is Michael Cohen<\/a> himself. And they need to restore credibility. They have a pattern of false stories on the Trump Administration<\/a> and this is the latest one. Howie does cnn have to do more than put out a onesentence statement. And to report on the president s attacks on the network. It may be uncomfortable, but its news. Phillipe every media outlet has the responsibility to call balls and strikes. I disagree with mollie describing the obama white house. But cnn said they made a mistake. Ed the source mai made a mis. Mollie cnn is standing by its story. Phillipe they are saying they have another source. I dont know any better. But they made a mistake. When fox is reporting on seth ridge. It took months before anyone acknowledged there was a mistake. Howie the online story was retracted, not months later. So trump says the good news about andy lack is about to be fired question mark for incompetence. Its purely a rumor, i just want to clarify that. Two days after the president fired jim im. Lets take a brief look at that interview. President trump regardless of the recommendation i was going to fire comey, flowing was no good time to do it. This russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. Howie the president treats when lester holt got caught fudging my tape they were misleading. Susan the transcript is all there. He said he didnt care about the investigation. He says things that undercut that statement we just watched. But hes trying to make it look like they fudged a story and they really didnt. Each side is accusing the other of fake news and lying, he probably can convince some of his base and people who follow him on twitter that there is truth on that. Howie we have don mcghan leaving. 11 days after the New York Times<\/a> story saying mcghan spent 30 hours with muellers investigators. The media seemed sympathetic to Jeff Sessions<\/a> after new taunts by the president. Interesting that the media is taking sessions side. Mollie its very good to cover the fact that donald trump is dissatisfied with his attorney general. But they go beyond that in deciding its inappropriate for the president to make decisions about who his attorney general is or is not. Its important they explain why people are upset with Jeff Sessions<\/a>. He recused himself from the investigation going on in the department of justice and people want to see the rule of law equally applied. Howie a Washington Times<\/a> report that he told bloomberg sessions is safe. Everything leaks in this white house. All these backstage struggles play out on twitter and the tube. Phillipe if you want to fire him, fire him. The president has not fired anyone since jim comey on this matter because he knows how horribly that went for him. He could fire Jeff Sessions<\/a> right now, but it wont go well for him. And its not the media pressing him on that. The fact that Lindsey Graham<\/a> and Charles Grassley<\/a> changed their tune shows you how long it has bent Republican Congress<\/a> has been saying to him, dont do this. It point go well. It wont go well. Mollie the way it was portrayed as obstruction investigation is a perfect example of how the media control the conversation in a way that is not helpful. Phillipe its a lie to say that tape is not real. Mollie you can have Media Coverage<\/a> that is inaccurate. Howie exclusive interview with lanny davis. When we come back, a week of media praise after john mccains passing. Why did many pundits turn that into an attack on donald howie the speakers at john mccains funeral jed, george w. Bush, barack obama, his daughter megyn not only praised the man but seemed to rebuke the man who wasnt there. An emotional she row sendoff kept straining at the criticism of donald trump. To watch the president not saying anything about this hero, this lion of a man is despicable. Mccain december spied trump. Trump for his part despised trump right back and neither man pretended otherwise. Howie political lead story, washington warns President Trump<\/a>. Ridiculous. I think the tucker quote was perfect. They did hate each other. Mccain really hated trump and he doesnt like the people who follow trump, the tea partyers. Thats why sara palin was shut out of the funeral. To expect the president to go on and on about what a hero mccain is. Mccain went to get the dossier and bring it back to the fbi, creating a huge investigation to topple his presidency. Howie it was almost as if you couldnt praise the senator and his life as a warrior and lawmaker without bashing the president. Mollie its a shame. This man is a legitimate American Hero<\/a> and people regardless of their political views could appreciate. People remember what happened when he ran for president when he was not treated as a lion or hero by the same media. Howie when he ran against george w. Bush he got extraordinarily good coverage. Hillary clinton praised mccain as did obama and biden. Given mccain had an extraordinary life over many decades, were the media doing something of a disservice by making so much of this about the contrast with President Trump<\/a> . Phillipe i think at the end of the day only the mccain flame can say whether this got away from them or not. What i think is the man is dead, to put it on the equivalency of what the president did last week and what john mccain couldnt do. Put the flag up. Put it down to halfmast. This stuff is silly. Susan what has he said thats negative about mccain this week . Nothing. He lowered the flag. He could have said dont put it back up. Then he pretty much went radio silence on mccain despite all the attacks. Howie when you have a funeral and two former president s with an implicit rebuke of trump. That was part of the story, Meghan Mccain<\/a> as well. But im talking more about the commentators. It became like the two stories were intertwined. Washington used to be such a good bipartisan place and that was the john mccain we loved. President trump has changed donald trump single handedly change the entire culture. Mollie they put it forth because it does represent what washington, d. C. Thinks. This is a complex story and there are some things people disagree with that are happening politically in d. C. That havent been well represented this week. Howie lanny davis on why he outed himself as an anonymous source in that cnn story. The president says google is rigged against him and conservatives. Howie President Trump<\/a> is giving it to google saying its search process is possibly illegal. That they have it rigged. Fake cnn is prominent. Donald trump google, facebook and twitter, i think they treat conservatives and republicans very unfairly. I have personal experience. Howie google may have flaws in the way it tweaks the algorithms. But could they be rigging all searches against con rshes and the republican party. Because there are human beings behind the algorithms some biases is a factor. Google could prove its not biased by showing you the algorithm. But can you imagine how many people would exploit that . Game the system. I can assure you it would not lead to a more balanced list in your search. Howie this is based on a blogger on a conservative site who ran a test, trump news and found the results were antitrump. So is that enough to warrant this sort of president ial blast . Shana the article struck a chord with people following recent coverage about buys at tech companies. What concerns me is there was a woman who sat behind a few Different Computers<\/a> and its caused such an uproar from censorship to calling for federal investigation. Its mismatched to the actual study that was performed. Howie who is going to tress the government to decide the perfect balance in all news searches. When cnn or Washington Post<\/a> or New York Times<\/a> pops up in these ranking. Doesnt google reward the most of popular websites . Yes. Its hard to translate the journalistic values into a set of rules they use and apply to every one. Google weighs traffic to sites, and that plays against these smaller sites with maybe a handful of reporters putting out a few stories a day versus dozens of stories being put out by the Washington Post<\/a> or other Mainstream Media<\/a> organizations. Howie you are saying Google Rewards<\/a> that. Its not necessarily an ideological decision. People click on it and google things it must be relevant. Shana its not a nefarious decision behind the bias. Howie there is a reason people dont trust big tech. But in googles case, im not sure it has been proved. Ahead on mediabuzz. An explosive charge against pope francis in the sexual abuse scandal. First, lanny davis sits down with me exclusively on the lesson he says hes learned from the cnn controversy. Howie lanny davis has been making the rounds saying his client pled guilty and may have more information. Cnn went with a story that cohen knows the president had advance knowledge of the meeting with a russian lawyer at trump tower. So Michael Cohen<\/a> does not have information that President Trump<\/a> had knowledge of the meeting at the trump tower beforehand. No, he does not. Howie you had a rough week which well get to in just a second. You say Rudy Giuliani<\/a> openly admitted his purpose is to appeal to the trump base and get ready for an impeachment battle. When i was covering the clinton impeachment thats what you and your allies tried to do to ken starr. Lanny and it appears we were successful in molding public opinion. Howie how do you criticize rudy for make similar tactics. Lanny i dont criticize his tactics if his concern is impeachment. We were talking about and subject that was personal indiscretion. This is a unanimous verdict by the intelligence communities that there was an effort by the kremlin to influence the American People<\/a> to vote for donald trump. And he denied that. And Rudy Giuliani<\/a> could focus on collusion or lack of evidence. Instead hes making personal attacks on mueller. The late senator john mccain reminded me attacking the motives of mr. Starr was a mistake. Howie you said i have my regrets by attacks on starrs motives. You said told me you made a mistake in your dealing with cnn. Where did you go wrong. Lanny i respect cnn. I have known jeff zucker for years. I respect them as journalists. I took this responsibility because i was unsure about the issue of the trump tower meeting. I thought there were other people who could have been in the room and it was up to journalists to go look at that. Howie did you ever confirm to cnn reporters this allegation about the trump tower meeting. Lanny i was never sure in my confirmation. I was uncertain. In fact i expressed my uncertainty, but not clear enough. I can understand they interpreted what i said as a confirmation and i have not blamed cnn, i blamed myself for not being more clear. In my mind i did not know the details about that meeting and i should not have encouraged any reporter. The lesson i learned. Im not certain even on back ground i should not be asking reporters to do investigateddive work when im not sure. Howie does did bother you that a lot of reports say lanny davis confirmed this then backed off and recanted. Lanny it does bother me because recanting isnt ease yesterday. I disclosed myself as a source. And i was very unclear in that. So yes. But i thought it was important not to blame cnn or anyone other than myself. I even wrote a book about taking responsibility. So this hasnt been an easy week for me. For everybody who deals with the media, this is a lesson, maybe a teaching moment moment. Dont float stories on background which is our expression for anonymously, unless you have a certainty of the facts and you are asking reporters to confirm those facts. Howie you drew flack for an interview with Anderson Cooper<\/a> where you said you were not a source for cnn. Is that true. Lanny i apologized for saying something that was not intentionally misleading. In my mind i wasnt sure of that story that was published so i didnt think of myself as a source for that story. Im sorry i didnt explain myself better to Anderson Cooper<\/a>. I have no excuse other than it wassing a long day and i should have expanded on my sentence. I dont blame either mr. Bernstein or mr. Shudow. It certainly is a learning moment for me. Howie you are saying as Michael Cohen<\/a>s lawyer you dont believe your client had any direct knowledge that the president knew in advance about the trump tower meeting with the russian lawyer. Am i right . Lanny i cant tell you what will cohen has told me. But i am not sure he did and it requires additional reporting. And i am not sure he did not. I know there is a lot of fuzzy memories here. There are people in and out of the room with mr. Trump all the time. I have heard people say of course he knew, his son would have told him ahead of time. Thats the key mistake. I take the responsibility. An assumption is not a fact. Howie you are coming forward saying you made a mistake. And its rare in washington. Is there a difference in the way things get processed in the media. Lanny when i wrote my book on the election and i saw jim im through data as the reason for an illegitimate presidency it was the result of an intervention by james comey. The data shows after october 28, Hillary Clintons<\/a> polls plunged. Howie there are a lot of the reasons she lost. Lanny when i wrote the book i didnt use the word lie. Lice an intentional will fus misstatement. That was not me when i talked to Anderson Cooper<\/a> or cnn. It was a mistake but not intentional. James comey knew what edtold congress. Not that i will disclose something even 11 days from the election. I will take a look first. During this interviews he never said im sorry, i made a mistake the way donald trump will never say im sorry i made a mistake the way im saying i am sorry, i made a mistake. Howie your critics say you are a big Hillary Clinton<\/a> booster, you wrote a book about how she got screwed out of the presidency. That you took on Michael Cohen<\/a>s case to use him to get revenge. Lanny there is no question i believe is an extremely divisive and harmful president. When Michael Cohen<\/a> came to me, it took me quite a while to listen to him as to why he had changed his mind about donald trump. I took on the representation because he was ready to speak what he felt about donald trump. So certainly that was part of my motive. Howie what was it he said to you that made you decide yes, i want to represent Donald Trumps<\/a> former lawyer. Lanny its a matter of public record. He suddenly saw mr. Trump denouncing the intelligence community. That i knew that his now conversion, a true transformation was important for the country and i would help him get those facts out. Howie not an easy thing to do, a difficult week for you. Why pope francis deflected allegations that he knew about Sexual Misconduct<\/a> by asking journalists to investigate. Howie pope francis has been very media savvy, but when reporters asked him about the church covering up the worst sexual abiewlss. The memo was written by the former ambassador recalled by francis. He claimed theater mckeriks abuse was punished earlier by former Pope Benedict<\/a>. And he told this to pope francis. The archbishop. Provided it to the National Catholic<\/a> register. Its all been critical of the pope. Joining us now. Fr. Tom reese. And former religion reporter mollie hemingway. Why would the pope tell reporters to check out the document full of accusations, knowing full well that would be seen as not denying the allegations. I think the pope made a mistake. He was correct saying look at the document and analyze and fact check it. If that document had been written by a journalist and given to their editor it wouldnt have been published because it was full of allegations without evidence. The mistake was, he said he met with the pope and told him about the sanctions and told him about the abuse. All the pope needed to do was verify that that yes it did happen or no, it did not happen. Thats what he need to do. Howie there is a cultural war going on in the church with the pope seen as taking a less conservative view. I was going to mention that headline because i was so inappropriate. What reporters need to do is look into the allegations that have been made. They are happy to work with Anonymous Sources<\/a> that provide no evidence. But when they have allegations on the record that can be checked out, their job is not to put it in the context of a culture war. Dont assume pope francis is guilty or the archbishop is lying. Howie do you find it interesting an Italian Journalist<\/a> helps pope francis, giving it to the National Catholic<\/a> register. It looked a little bit like collusion. Italian journalism is very different from american journalism. There is no big distinction between the edtowardial page, the editorial page, oped and news stories. The papers have strong ideological biases. So its no surprise at all. Howie mollie you said its fine for him to take a sceptical attitude towards the allegations. But how could we have a situation where Pope Benedict<\/a> supposedly secretly imposed sanctions against the head of the Catholic Church<\/a> inch d. C. And nobody knew about it . Mollie i think the allegation was mccarrick knew about it. Instead of thinking about what team they are on. Benedict took a light punishment to someone with credible allegations of abuse. Its not like he even looks particularly good. Urgh. Its an unspeakable tomorrow it has taken on young boys. Mollie it seems they are running interest force for the situation to not hold people accountable. You look at what happens even with this media rollout. Even when people are trying to bring attention to these things, they get such resistance even in the media. People should be caring more about systematic corruption in the church. Howie i have been reading anguished be pieces from catholics. Journalists covering this, commenting on it. But those who are catholic are in anguish. This has been a real challenge to everybody in the church. But the focus has to be on the victims. They are the ones really hurt by this, tragically scared. The church needs to respond to that and reach out to them. Howie the call has to be Holding Accountable<\/a> those responsible for this. There is no question about that. We have to have systems in place. If there is an accusation and coverup. It needs to be investigated. It needs to be tracked down. And if its true, he needs to lose his job. Thanks very much for joining us on this difficult subject. Still to come, a report that President Trump<\/a> wanted to buy up all the National Enquirers<\/a> all the National Enquirers<\/a> secrets about him. My name is jeff sheldon, and im the founder of ugmonk. Before shipstation it was crazy. Its great when you see a hundred orders come in, a hundred orders come in, but then you realize ive got a hundred orders i have to ship out. Shipstation streamlined that wh the order data, the weights of , everything is seamlessly put into shipstation, so when we print the shipping ll everythings pretty much done. Its so much easier so now, were ready, bring on t. Shipstation. The number one ch of online sellers. Go to shipstation. Com tv and get two months free. Howie President Trump<\/a> made off the record comments about canada. But the toronto stash not bound by the ad the toronto star not bound by the agreement found out and leaked the comments. Justin trudeau found out. The president said the powerful understanding was blatantly violated. The toronto star reporter says hes smearing the bloomberg interest viewers and they were not his source. The National Enquirer<\/a> buying and burying the story about Karen Mcdougal<\/a> may just be the tip of the iceberg. The New York Times<\/a> reports donald trump had a plan to buy up all the socalled dirt the tabloid supposedly extra kiewsmed up on him since the 1980s. But the deal never happened. New yorks Village Voice<\/a> that published a lot of investigative reporting it was liberal but the model for similar papers around the country died this week. Victim of print publications and other city papers have shrunk or shrivels or gone away. The Village Voice<\/a>. Im howard kurtz. I hope you are enjoying the labor day weekend. Ratings go up and down. But i want to take a moment to thank you. This show had more viewers in august than any cnn show in prime time. Lets continue the conversation on twitter and my facebook page. You can comment and ill comment right back. You might want to subscribe to my podcast. You can subscribe at apple itunes, google play, or foxnewspodcasts. Com. Well be back next sunday with the latest good morning, it is monday september 13th, this is fox friends first, happening at 4 00 a. M. , fox news alert, chaos at california racetrack. Okay, theres gunfire at the track, theres gunfire at the track, theres gunfire. Rob gunman opening fire on live television, it could be heard, the breaking details we just learned overnight. Jillian Brett Kavanaugh<\/a> may not be getting enough rest on labor facing whats a grueling day tomorrow. 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