I didnt like it, i didnt appreciate it. It was the rude, it was illmannered. I think it was factually incorrect. Howard and should the network be embarrassed that the jorge ramos was denigrating President Trump . John bolton is out with leaks on both sides about the two men clashing on Foreign Policy. John bolton is reported to have been maybe the key player in stopping the taliban visit to camp david, and that frustrated the president , and now john boltons gone. This is what happens if you do tell the president the truth. It is great news for america, especially for the large number of young people who would have been killed in wars if bolton had stayed on the job. Howard im howard kurtz and this is mediabuzz. Howard fox news alert, the New York Times began by deleting a tasteless tweet by two of its reporters. Its an odd opinion section piece that waits until the ninth paragraph to describe whats called new information about the allegations by Deborah Ramirez, the woman who took six days to assess her memories before telling the new yorker that kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party at yale, which he flatly denied. The authors say they spoke to seven people who heard about the event many years ago, and they published a second allegation about another Drunken Party where kavanaugh supposedly pulled down his pants, and friends pushed a woman into touching him. They talked to two officials who communicated with the man who claimed it happen. President trump now the radical left and the Mainstream Media are after Brett Kavanaugh again. He is an innocent man whos been treated horribly, such lies about him. They want to scare him into turning liberal. And the president said Brett Kavanaugh should start suing people for libel. Joining us now to analyze the coverage, ben domenech, founder and publisher of the federalist, Susan Ferrechio and gene zano. Is it fair for the New York Times to have the appropriators drop this into an analysis piece, a charge of this magnitude against a sitting Supreme Court justice, without the backup that ordinarily is required of a hard news story . Absolutely not. Theres a number of things that, frankly, they leave out, things that are in some cases included in the book in a very quiet way. They just kind of go right past the point that you made in your open that this accuser, the supposed second accuser is not someone who actually is making this claim. This is being claimed by someone associated. They also dont make clear about who ben styier is, mainly that he and Brett Kavanaugh have been on opposite sides in the past, the Clinton Lewinsky battle where they clearly had, you know, an experience of opposition. Thats something that should be included in any story of this magnitude. Howard if the times says that a foreman classmate is making this allegation about another Drunken Party remember, this is more than three decades ago and he refuses to talk and they talk to two people that talked to him, is that secondhand information enough to go with . Its not enough. You need two sources. The second allegation is the one i have the problem with. They say there is this allegation, but the person whos making it we havent been able to talk to, but we talked to officials who talked to this person. That is not enough to print it, particularly in the newspaper. If theres an excerpt from a book that they are advertising on behalf of these reporters sticking it into the newspaper in the opinion section and using that as a basis to make these allegations, i think both of those things are problematic journalistically. Howard susan, these may be lies, but we dont know. Its two journalists reporting a book. Is the president on solid ground in saying, first of all, these are lies; second of all, they are trying to intimidate kavanaugh into making more liberal rulingsing, and finally, in suggestion that he sue for libel . Well, hes a public figure the, kavanaugh, so i dont know about i suing for lie libel. But the president makes a point that the New York Times is trying to say he was a drunken sexual offender in college. Its not backed up even in the book, and i think that why, you know, you and i are reporters, why did they write the story this way, maybe its so far down in the story because its really not backed up by facts, its just implied. Can you really make that kind of accusation against somebody without real facts, saying witnesses saw this . Its not there. So i dont understand why they framed it that way other than to back up what the president is saying, which is that they want to portray kavanaugh as some kind of sexual offender. Howard i reached out to kavanaugh for comment, his team is deciding not to comment for now. They dont want to fuel this story, although the president s kind of done that for them. I obtained the Relevant Pages from this forthcoming book which is the education of brett caf nawmpleght an investigation. The woman, the allegedded victim here at this longago yale party, she is named, by the way, although according to this telling shes a Sexual Assault victim. She refused to discuss the incident, though several of her friends say she does not recall it. Now, that was left out of what the New York Times published today. If this happened, wouldnt she be very, very likely to recall it . And how do you leave that out of an account about a Supreme Court justice . Ben . I just think this is so irresponsible on the part of the times. I mean, we kind of skipped past one of the things, this was not a good week for the New York Times social media team who had to delete and apologize a couple of different tweets. I think what youre talking about is to be essential to be included in it, you cant just, to susans point, make this kind of implication, this massive kind of claim without including all the necessary facts that people need to know in order to make a Fair Assessment of it and to know what they dont know about the claim and what details howard this woman, im not going to name her. The times does identify her for by name, the alleged victim here whose friends say she does not remember this longago incident, the book has a, quoteunquote, written statement by her. Its about vouching for her friend Deborah Ramirez, saying shes honest and has integrity. Yeah. And, you know, i think that, again, is part of the problem that we havent had the benefit of reading the entire book. Obviously excerpts, we havent read it. The times pulled out sections of this book which to all of these points is the problem. Because you have allegations that are unsubstantiated. I do think we have to differentiate between the first allegations for which there are apparently seven people corroborating and the second for which there is no corroboration. And to bens point, the tweet is absolutely despicable. To describe, if it end happened, to describe it as harmless fun, to do that to a young woman is absolutely unacceptable. Howard Deborah Ramirez did not testify in the hearings. The seven people, according to this book, said they had heard about it, but theyre not eyewitnesses. So im left thinking they dont have the classmate directly who is claiming this, and they dont have an on the record comment from the woman herself and her friends say she doesnt remember it. What do they have . Okay. So its the way you package the story you write it as though its fact, and then you put the lack of facts further down the story where nobody reads it. So the Public Perception is that its fact. I watched it all unfold last night on social media. People are looking at this as if its another likely true allegation against kavanaugh backed up by zero facts. Its changing the narrative, and its really about the medias own accountability here. Are we going to keep reporting stories like this based on our own political biases . To target people or support people depending on whether we like them or hate them . Reporters need to write about facts, and thats what they were supposed to do here. Howard obviously, many of us will have more to say after weve seen the book. Let me turin now to john turn now to john bolton, former Fox News Contributor. Heres what the president said, he made pretty clear in speaking to reporters that he was unhappy with bolton. He made some very big mistakes when he talked about the libyan model for kim jong un. That was not a good statement to make. Hes somebody that i actually had a very Good Relationship with, but he wasnt getting along with people in the administration that i consider very important. Howard ben. Com niche, theres obviously been domenech, theres been commentary about this is his Third National security adviser, almost everybody in his orbit flames out eventually. Has that overshadowed their fundamental differencens on differences on several fundamental policy issues . Someone will join the White House Team and immediately be criticized as a terrible choice, you know . John bolton is this warmonger coming in howard the wild man. Hes a wild man thats going to lead us into war, and as soon as he leaves, oh, strange new respect. Its, oh, no, he was a strong hand at the wheel, you know . The now the president s going to be even crazier. To me, t kind of ridiculous. The president clearly has differences with a lot of people that he brings around and adjudicating those differences is something thats very important for a managerred to do. In this case i think the problem wasnt just that john bolton didnt see eye to eye with the president , its that he had a difficult relationship with secretary pompeo and with other members of the president s team, and that made things more and more difficult to function. But the way this was depicted whenever someone leaves always cracks me up. Howard in particular, liberals were outraged by john boltons appointment because he does have this very hawkish record and all hed say on fox over the years, and now many of the same liberals are saying this is a terrible thing, that trump pushed him out. Yeah. You almost get whiplash, right . When hes appointed, its bemoaning the fact that he would make this appointment, somebody that is such a hawk, is and all of a sudden its become being fired by the president is somehow a hallmark that you have moved up your status or retiring or resigning, however this came out. But, you know, to me, its really nonstory. The story here should be a story about the impact on our Foreign Policy and Donald Trumps approach to Foreign Policy and leading the nation. That should be the story, not the comes and goings of bolton. Howard well, in fairness, some have tried to deal with that. Look, the president has a lot of turnover in this white house, fact. President does like to hire tv commentators, larry kudlow from cnbc. But on iran, on russia, on syria and, of course, on the afghanistan summit at camp david which got canceled, it cannot have been a secret to donald trump. I was surprised when he joined the Administration Just based on what the president campaigned on; getting troops out of afghanistan, more focus on the United States versus trying to change the world abroad. I was surprised. I didnt think he would last long, and i knew once they got to afghanistan, things would start to clash. But the president said im really easy to work for because i make all the decisions. Warning to whoever takes boltons place. Howard a little more on this after the break, and well also look at the coverage of the democratic debate. One of the benefits we as a country give our veterans is eligibility for a va loan for up to 100 of your homes value. Thank you, admiral. So if you need money for your family, call newday usa. I p u ]÷ug< enterprise car sales and youll take any tradein . Rom thats right great here you go. Well, it does need to be a vehicle. But i need this out of my house. vo with fair, Transparent Value for every tradein. Enterprise makes it easy. Here, hello starts with hi mple. How can i help . A data plan for everyone. Everyone . Everyone. Lets send to everyone [ camera clicking ] wifi up there . Ahhh. Sure, why not . Howd he get out . a camera might figure it out. That was easy glad i could help. At xfinity, were here to make life simple. Easy. Awesome. So come ask, shop, discover at your xfinity store today. Howard the democratic debate in a moment, but just to finish up our conversation here with the panel on john bolton leaving the white house, the final straw, ben, was bolton being opposed to president inviting taliban leaders to camp david to sign a peace deal in afghanistan. Of course, the president canceled it in the wake of a car bombing. At the same time, there were a lot of tensions about leaking to the press, and when President Trump met with the kim jong un at the dmz, bolton disputed a New York Times story about an interim deal with north korea. He said this publicly, some were trying to box in the president. Then bolton was accused of leaking reporters notes from an off the record leaking. You know, i think that the president is certainly someone who dislikes people on his team leaking, and i think that, you know, john bolton, you know, whatever you think of him, is someone who has somewhat of a cozy relationship with a lot of people in the media. Hes been in the media for years, and you tend to talk to people like that. I think this is something the president needs to be cognizant of when hes hiring people from the media to go into his administration. Howard just briefly, why shouldnt he have somebody who agrees with him on the major Foreign Policy issues and someone who hes comfortable with . Its not like other president s havent had various top aides for political and policy reasons. Brookings has done a fascinating accounting of the turnover, and it is higher in the third year, its even lower than obama. President s turn over fast, they turn over appointments. That is their absolute right to do that. Howard now, the press is often accused, susan, of palace intrigue. Theres a lot of stories about tension with bolton and the president and others. Washington post on august 30th that the white house had sidelined bolton on afghanistan, and an Embassy Spokesman at the time said this was a biased report based on unconfirmed leaks and theres more truth in the national enquirer. Ten days later, hes gone. This happens a lot, doesnt it, where the white house denies something only for it to be confirmed later through the president s actions. I think the big problem is so many leaks occupant of the white house. Out of the white house. Howard i want to get to the debates. Jorge ramos of univision was on the panel, take a look at a couple of the questions that he asked the candidates. Are you prepared to say tonight that you and president obama made a mistake about deportations . Why should latinos trust you . We didnt lock people up in cages, we didnt separate families. President trump has called mexicans rapists and killers, do you think people who support President Trump and his immigration policies are racist . Anyone who supports this is supporting racism. Do you think Trump Supporters are racist . How was he able to sit on that abc panel and crusade . Is that an embarrassment to the network . You know, in 2016 i think everyone would agree that the most embarrassing debate moderation was done by john harwood of cnbc. It was insulting. He talked to nowPresident Trump saying he was running a comic book campaign. Jorge ramos, i think, on the scale of 10 being harwood, he was a solid 8. It was a situation where he was saying all of these things that are so opinionatedded and so aggressive and suggesting, offering all these different defenses up. You cant i put someone who is that strong of an advocacy role on a debate panel and expect it to go well. Howard abc certainly knew what it was getting with ramos. I dont see anyone in the main stream media saying hes supposed to be neutral. Remember, fox cant host a dnc debate because its so biased. And, you know, my problem is having networks at all host these debates. There was a time when the league of women voters was hosting debates. And when they were pushed out of that position, they said this is a charade and pushed on the American Public by institutions that are designed to make money. That is the problem. You need independent organizations running these debates, not networks. Howard my point is that bret baier, martha mccam lumbar would be a lot more solid. Let me ask you, super, i thought maybe hed make an attempt to tone it down. You know, how dare the Obama Administration enforce the law by deporting people who were here illegally, three million of them. Your take. I think they wanted that. I think abc was looking for some sparks, and they got them. I think the debates for the primaries, its okay to have someone like him doing that. They dont hide it anymore. They dont hide the bias in these debates anymore. I say it all the time, its fine when youre just talking just to democrats. My concern is whats going to happen when we get to the general debate. Thats when we need to be very careful who we put up there. I know there were accusations of bias last time. I say let cspan do it this time. We need a real neutral person howard its a great suggestion. I dont see it happening. We have more to say about this. Of course, the decision was made to put him on. Back in a moment. How