tv Media Buzz FOX News February 28, 2016 12:00pm-1:01pm PST
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and tomorrow night on "special report, exquisite exquisite bret baier sits down with loretta lynch for her first appearance on fox news. that's it for today. have a great week and we'll see you next "fox news sunday." tmo business network. see you then. on a buzz beater today, t onwo the buzz beater this sunday, with two days until super tuesday, the media jumping on the super express. asking if anyone can derail the donald. >> bigger question, can anyone catch up with donald trump. >> he's definitely going to be nominate he's going to rouse everybody in the caucus. >> we basically said for ted cruz, it's over for rubio, it's over. unless something happens. >> it's like the "titanic" is sinking in the establishment. >> marco rubio and ted cruz slamming trump in the debate on
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cnn loses control. >> are you the only person on the stage that been fined for hiring people illegally. >> i'm the only person on the stage that has hired people. >> you get along with nobody. you don't have one republican -- you don't have one republican senator -- >> you should be ashamed of yourself. >> but you're not dating hillary. >> hey can i can't beat here, you're really going to get killed, aren't you? >> is the stormy debate going to be changing the forecast. the focus group will tell us. what will the conservative commentators who detest trump do if he wins the nomination. rich lowery joins us. hillary clinton trounces bernie sanders with 76% of the vote. are the media convinced that the sanders surge is over? plus, a campaign victory with friends dumping friends is
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faish turni facebook turn toing toxic. i'm howard kurtz and this is "media buzz." >> you have more careful about that kind of stuff. >> i posted it in haste. i apologized. >> the media new convention was that trump was soaring, cruz was fading and rubio desperately needed to attack trump which he did again and again at the cnn debate in houston. >> is that the part of the plan? >> no, no. >> you'll have many different plans. you'll have competition, you'll have so many different larges. >> now, he's repeating himself. >> no, i'm not repeating. >> what i'm seeing up here, first of all, this guy is a
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choke artist and this guy is a liar. >> one thing that was agonizingly evident as they smacked each other around, wolf blitzer repeatedly lost control of the debate. >> gentlemen, gentlemen. >> i want to clarify something. >> gentlemen, please, i want to move on. we want to talk about the economy. gentlemen? gentlemen? you have agreed -- >> you have not answered that question. >> you know what? call it what you want. call it what you want. people are not going dying -- >> all of you have agreed to the rules. i want to move on. >> hold on. he called me a liar. you mean i can't respond to him calling me a liar? >> go ahead and respond. >> joining us now to analyze the coverage, cheryl atkinson host of "full measure" that airs sunday morning. amy holmes, news anchor at "the blaze." and joe trippi. the same pundits said trump is impossible and now saying he's practically unstoppable.
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amazing, isn't it? >> amazing. we're supposed to bring insight and not being doing what i think we're doing this case which is finally coming around to the thing that public already knew and was screaming at their televisions all these months. now we're supposed to take seriously when the news and pundits say now we know what is going on. you can listen to us and believe us. >> you say journalists are behind the public in this case. at the debate, amy holmes, marco rubio got good press for trying attack donald trump. there was so many charges and countercharge that's it may have all gotten lost in the din. >> well, it may have gotten lost in the din, but what we've seen with these debates is that they never seem to hurt trump. he may not do well. he may not respond fully. he may not have a detailed plan. but he keeps gaining points. cheryl, to your point about the media, i think there is this love-hate relationship between the immediate why and donald trump.
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i call them friend amys. on the one hand, they were saying donald trump certainly can't win the republican nomination. i mean who could ever imagine that? and, yet, continually throughout this campaign putting their thumb on the scale by giving donald trump the most free media, the most earned media of any political candidate i think we've ever seen. >> that's in part because he does more news than anybody. >> he's great for ratings. that you this say what was going to happen. >> just the tone of the campaign and the insults we started to see this morning on the sunday shows, trump referring to rubio as little rubio and rubio calling him a con artist and a clown show. but i want to play one little bit of trump that got kind of overlooked at the media -- excuse me, at the cnn debate in texas as he did something that he's done in other debates. take a look. >> first of all, i don't believe anything telemundo says. >> you are going back on your commitment? >> first of all, very few people listen to your radio show. >> trump insulted hewitt and the telemundo show. does that work for him? >> it works every time. and there is a love-hate relationship thing works for
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donald trump a lot better than it does for the media and the hosts and show hosts and anchors that he goes up against. >> it is hard to moderate a presidential debate when everybody is trying to talk and trampling over the rules. i felt for wolf blitzer. but it seem to you that things just really got out of control? >> at times. some of it was design. there is time when he was letting thing goes on and on. that's because in, my view, and having worked at cnn, somebody is in your ear saying, let it go. this is great. let it play. but there's another dynamic. the audience was wild. the audiences are stacked and coached. they're trying to create moments. >> coached? >> that is my opinion. they're trying to create moments, good ones for the candidates and bad ones for the opposing candidates. they can turn the tide or feeling of a bad question and make it sound like the answer was good, by applauding wildly no matter what the answer is, and i think i saw that. >> i agree. i think the audience, getting disruptive in these events. in the fall campaign this don't let the audiences cheer.
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maybe that's a good idea. all right, ted cruz, to your point about trump and the way he's covered by the media and the free air time question, took a whack at the coverage of the donald. take a look at that. >> an awful lot of the mainstream media is using kid gloves on donald right now. because they want donald to be the nominee, and the instance he's the nominee, they will unleash every cannon they can to elect hillary clinton. >> we go through some of the things. here's cruz saying the media wants trump to be the nominee, do you buy that? >> i don't think it's conspiratorial that they want him to be the nominee. it is certainly great for business and ratings. i almost think the relationship is like a drug addict. they know he's toxic but they want to keep chasing that ratings high. if he's the republican nominee, listen, the media is going to sit back and cover it relentlessly. get high ratings. but at the end of the day, do they want him? i think they'll take this a lot more seriously if donald trump was running as a democrat.
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>> but the ratings high reflect the kind of support he has. people are watching him because they're for him or i'm sure there are a lot of people watching him because they find it entertaining. it still relates to his -- he's putting votes on the table in these states and he's win. >> what about cruz's point about kid gloves? i would argue that many interviews, not all, including interviews with me, that he gets pressed a lot. >> you've been easy on him. i'm kidding. >> no to transcriber, sarcasm. but my point is that even when trump gets negative coverage, even when conservative commentators on fox and say that, it helps him because he runs against the press. >> no, exactly right. and so i don't think -- i think the more the press goes after him, the more the establishment goes after him, the better he's going to do. and so, i don't buy the argument that cruz and rubio are putting out there. >> i think the tough test has
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come from conservative media. national review dedicated an entire issue to stop trump. meanwhile, the mainstream media, i think, is actually treating him with kid gloves, around digging into his background nearly as much as conservative media, because for conservative media, donald trump is a catastrophe. for main street media, he's entertainment. >> liberal commentators beat up on him, too. i want to talk about friday. i was in the chair in this studio. didn't get on the air because of trump. he held a news conference with chris christie, the somewhat surprised endorsement from the new jersey governor. then there was a break and he spoke at a rally. cnn and fox and msnbc took much of that live. both of the presser and the rally and we actually timed it. fox, 1 hour and 12 minutes. cnn, 1 and 15 minutes, msnbc, 1:47. after the cnn debate in texas, trump was interviewed twice on the postgame show, so it does
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seem like the camera or the people who make the decisions that it goes on camera do love him. i want to play for you a sound bite involving what some other are saying about the other candidates and whether they should stay in this race. take a look. >> i would say ben carson and john kasich, it's time to move on so the supporters and money can go to someone else. >> it would take a miracle for not only you but john kasich with a delegate situation being what it is to overcome trump. >> a lot of things can happen, bill. >> why do journalists keep telling candidates they should drop out of the presidential race? >> well, on opinion that people are entitled to do so, but ordinary journalist, if luke at how we're framing the coverage, it's largely in terms of how to beat trump. what combinations of which votes if people drop out can overcome the momentum that trump has rather than more what you would expect a neutral analysis or neutral reporting of what is happening. they seem to be more than i've ever noticed before, rooting for an outcome and trying to hope and sway and they seem delighted when rubio and cruz finally --
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this is how they termed it, attacked trump. the media seemed happy as if it's what they were waiting for. >> the dirty tricks allegations against ted cruz and his campaign, do you think that he -- cruz, made it a story about ten times bigger than it had be by firing his communications director rick tyler who apologized on the air? >> that's an interesting point. i think, yes, it did give the story legs. here is another twist and turn, the ted cruz dirty tricks story line. politically, he had to. he was getting a lot of criticism from his own supporters. saying, look, we can't have this. >> a few days later, tyler becomes an msnbc contributor. that struck me as odd. >> certainly. i'm not sure all of msnbc's viewers know that he has this conflict of interest. we'll see if it's on the chyron, former spokesperson for ted cruz every single time he has something to say. >> absolutely crazy for cruz to
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do that right before the vote. i mean that, was just -- if you're going to do it, do it a couple days later. >> i assume there is more it to. i assume it wasn't for that one act. because that said to cruz's supports, some of whom might otherwise support trump that he doesn't have the same fortitude and backing up his people and sticking to it as trump does. >> what do you think of cheryl's point that at least some in the mainstream media and the way they handicap race seem to want an outcome where there is a one-on-one between cruz and -- excuse me, between trump and marco rubio and therefore, kind of have their thumb on the scale? >> definitely, i think there's a merging of mainstream media and the establishment. i mean, is there something between new york and washington and mens of congress and the media in the way they're portraying the race and actually put are their thumb on, it no doubt about it. >> and that is why there's a lot of public anger at us in the mainstream media because they feel like we have become part of the establishment and a lot of people see us as anti-trump.
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before we go, trump in an interview or was it in a debate? he's done it since. talked about the libel laws. he criticized "the new york times" and "washington post" coverage. he said he's going to make the libel laws tougher and so that if anyone writes purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them, win lots of money. your reaction? >> i'm dubious about changing libel law. i do have sympathy to the idea that a public figure today has almost no recourse. your attorney will tell you anyway for something that is false and malicious even though the laws are supposed to protect you, it doesn't. there may as well not be one. we have the food fights, feeding frenzies, anything goes. on the other hand, i think, you know, it bothers me the idea of changing libel law we have to be very, very careful. >> right. i mean, you can sue now, but it is true, if you're a public figure, you basically have to prove that something was knowingly false and published or aired with reckless disregard
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hillary clinton is heading into super tuesday after a stunning victory yesterday. the south carolina primary taking 74% of the vote in a state that bernie sanders didn't even bother to give a speech afterwards. while her second straight win has revived the thought, she's still dogged by the honesty questions as we see in one of the many interviews on msnbc. >> we've been talking about how calculating you were and how it seems to be not the person that we know personally. >> there is kind of come to me over the last month because, you know, it is painful. it is hurtful to have people say oh, we don't trust her or don't know why she's doing it.
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>> so, amy, the flip side of the trump question, the press was saying a week ago hillary was in trouble. she had no theme. she wasn't drawing the crowds. two big wins. back to calling it inevitable. but there is the question we saw in that "morning joe" interview. >> right. i think all of the above can be true. and we see hillary clinton's campaign, she's not generated the same type of just native excitement that bernie sander has. yet, she does have the machine behind her. we saw in south carolina this landslide victory. >> is the press tough on her? we talked about the press and trump. >> i think the press is -- they're not as tough on her as they are with conservatives when you look at the e-mail scandal problem that she is under investigation. >> which is opened by "the new york times." >> which is opened by "the new york times." a lot of conservatives would say this should be disqualifying. yet, you have the "new york times" saying, mrs. clinton, do answer the questions. >> so you think -- you can pick
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that up. also address whether there, you know, just stunningly massive south carolina win, i mean it's not even a landslide, that doesn't do it justice. is this touted in part because the press expected hillary to win big? >> they should have expected it for months and months. it was obviously coming. but they totally ignored it. even the narrative that bernie sanders is turning on part of the obama coalition where the one party has never been able to turn on. with african-americans. it's a pretty big part of it. >> do you think -- >> it's kind of been one-sided. >> do you think the press was complicit in generating artificial excitement? bernie sanders is tied in iowa. had a big win in new hampshire. the clinton campaign said those are the two weaker states. once we got to the bigger, more diverse states, she would blow him away. so far, that seems to be happening. did the press kind of get swept up in the sanders momentum? >> yeah. and i think there is the same reason. wants the contest and a contest
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is going to get more people interested in watching than it's over. it was always going to be this way. it was always going to be this way. and they were pretty brutal on her up through -- and also i think used the sanders surge in iowa and new hampshire to tie all the stuff that was going against her, on honesty and all those things into that narrative. >> interesting twist. editorial pages don't have the clout they used to. liberal editorial page saying hillary clinton is stonewalling and should release transcripts on the wall street groups, that includes the money from goldman sachs. what did you make of that? >> i make of that it's "the new york times" as a whole has taken a viewpoint for whatever reason it seems to be less pro hillary clinton. they've been breaking stories you may not have seen them break against her, maybe five years ago they wouldn't have done it. they're doing it now. >> so you're saying news pages and opinion pages? >> yes. i want to point out the news
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is still deciding which narrative to adopt, we should be doing more of our own original reporting. if you look at nevada, i thought this was interesting. i didn't see it reported anywhere. even though they have accord even though they have cording to the website at the elections office 100,000 more democratic registered voters, trump won the republican party with huge margin, something like 70,000 votes whereas was it 50 or 70? she won with 6,000 votes on the democrat side even though there are so many more registered democrats there. i think that's just a narrative that was fought put out there by anybody. >> got time for a short comment. do you think it's going to remain critical? you think it's too soft? >> well, personally, i think it's too soft. i think her feet do need to be held to the fire. in defense of bernie sanders, we have an independent socialist that did far better than anyone thought a year ago. >> anybody. that includes me. and he deserves credit for that. >> all right, joe trippi, amy
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holmes, sharyl attkisson. great to see you on this sunday. still ahead, what will conservative commentators who led the dump trump movement do if he wins? look at the cable news networks are are handling the campaign in our media microscope. let me talk to you about retirement. a 401(k) is the most sound way to go. let's talk asset allocation. sure. you seem knowledgeable, professional. i'm actually a dj. [ dance music plays ] woman: [laughs] no way! that really is you? if they're not a cfp pro, you just don't know. cfp -- work with the highest standard.
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stuffy or runny nose, sore throat, and headache. for help lowering your blood sugar talk to your doctor about januvia. tru huge amount of air time. monday to thursday this week, cnn had the most mentions of trump, average of 1458 each day, just edging out msnbc with 1444. both significantly hire than fox news with 1,078 mentioned. we move over to ted cruz. the numbers are substantially lower. 925 average mentions each day, 780 on cnn, 559 on fox. and rubio with about half of trump's coverage, msnbc with an average of 748, cnn, 656 and fox with 543.
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by the way, the company has been giving us daily averages in recent weeks, not cumulative totals which doesn't change the findings one bit but we wanted to make that correction. now for this week, virtually no difference than tone for all three networks about 72% negative for trump, 75% negative for cruz. similar to rubio with cnn slightly more negative. the democratic race getting about half the attention overall. cnn with 499 average daily mentions of hillary clinton. might be might be with 421, fox with 256. bernie sanders, a bit behind with about 400 mentions each on cnn and msnbc, that's each day. just 184 on fox. both clinton and sanders getting coverage is about two-thirds negative on the three networks but on fox, that rises to 73% negative for bernie. by the way, a similar power in print. trump getting more coverage than cruz in "the washington pos," "new york times" and "wall street journal." rubio is getting half of trump's coverage in the "post" and "the journal."
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a big drop for the democrats in these papers overall. clinton got somewhat more coverage than sanders in the post and journal and sanders getting more in the "new york times." here's the bottom line, hillary clinton is getting much more positive coverage in the three papers than donald trump, by 13 to as much as went percentage points. cnn has banned roger stone, republican strategist and former trump adviser, for appearing as a guess, this after the discovery of his offensive tweets against cnn contributors. stone wants called our reporter abusive diva and borderline retarded and called roland martin a stupid negro, a moron and token and suggests he eat more fried chick. they were released by "media matters." stone attacked navarro again and called cnn biassed and said it seems the clintons said do not interview me again in the future because i'm not pc. there was zero evidence of that. turns out stone who also appeared on fox news in recent months has made disparaging
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comments about megyn kelly and charles krauthammer in the past. fox dropped him but there is no bone. stone should be asked about the tweets the next time he shows up on fox. "ahead on "media buzz," facebook turns mean spirited. people are feuding and unfriending each other. but first, what do ordinary voters think about how the press coverage of trump trump? frank lunt is here in a moment. to truly feel healthy on the outside you have to feel healthy... ...at your core. trubiotics a probiotic from one a day naturally helps support both your digestive and immune health by combining... ... two types of good bacteria. trubiotics. be true to your health.
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if there's one question that sparng sparks as much divisive debate is it's they a focus group in houston. >> how many of you think the media is fair overall to donald trump? raise your hands. so it's most of you. all the media is saying is that he's hit a ceiling, he'll be out of the race in a month. that's all you hear. i don't think they've been fair.
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>> so then the question becomes, is the media manipulating trump or is trump manipulating the media? >> he's manipulating the media. >> he is absolutely manipulating the media. because what he does is what he does as a ceo. >> at least i read that trump says yes to every interview and most other candidates are selective with their interviews. a lot of people won't come on fox news or where ever. trump will go anywhere. he is on msnbc. >> they want trump to be the freak show that represents the republican part so we will lose. >> joining me in washington is frank luntz. he's also a folks news contributor. that woman says the media wants trump to be the freak show representing the republican party. >> hopefully i'm not one of the freaks. the question is fair. they're asking questions to cause him to explode. and he does. he gives them the ammunition. >> in a way that journalists don't do with other candidates? >> i was watching chris wallace on this network this morning,
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absolutely held trump's feet to the fire. and some of the stuff that trump said i thought was pretty controversial. i give credit to chris wallace. you know what? what that respondent said there was true. trump does give the media the chance to get at him. he does every interview. he's on tv. this morning on washington, d.c., he was on competing channels at the same time. >> chris wallace is also tough on ted cruz this morning. by the way, people say free air time if he's being questioned by journalists, then i think -- we want more of that. >> and people want more of that. they want to hear what donald trump has to say. >> others in the group said they may be giving him too much air time. one man pointed out, he is out there putting himself in the line of journalistic fire. let me play something else from the focus group we did. fascinating responses, by the way. some of the talk turned to marco rubio. here we go. >> why is it that when i read the blogs, all i see are complaints from trump people that the media doesn't treat him well. what's the problem? >> it seems like the rubio
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channel. >> do you agree with that? >> yeah. >> no. >> why do you say that? >> everything we hear is, you know, rubio this. he's the little darling. and the snide remarks. >> so people are convinced that fox or some other channel or some other network is for or against rubio or trump or cruz. as if there's -- everyone is getting marching orders. >> i give you credit for putting that -- i'm shocked. that would never be on cnn. that would never be on msnbc. >> if it were about the network. >> yes. good for you for putting that on. yes. i get it all the time. if i go to the trump blogs, fox is in the pockets of rubio. if you go to cruz blogs, it's in the pockets of trump. if you go to the rubio blogs, it's in the pocket of everybody else. people see what they want to see and disregard the rest. we're all seeing things through rose-colored glasses and it becomes almost impossible to be fair. which is why these debates are so important. because it's the one time that you can actually hold a candidate accountable. >> briefly on rubio. the notion he's a media darling, after he had that performance where he was hammered for being
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robotic and finished fifth in new hampshire, everybody in media beat up on him and some said he was finished. it's not like the entire business is pumping up this guy. >> he's a great communicator. they're conflating good communication with support from the media. they think because he always sounds good, he always sounds reasonable, therefore, theed me is in bed with him. that's not the case. rubio won the last two or three debates. >> in your view? >> in the view of the focus groups yet it hasn't moved numbers. that's what i think is significant that these debates, we're now just about to enter march and these debates even though they're still watched by 14 or 15 million people, they don't have the impact that they did because people are no longer undecided. >> so it doesn't matter what questions journalists asks at the debates. you're saying the race is getting kind of frozen despite all the focus on the way we cover it? >> when they ask questions about
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their persona, which the public has a right to know then the audience boos. they think that it's an attack. when they ask questions about policies, they have dealt with almost every policy. there have been ten debates. >> right. >> so, they've covered everything at this point so there's nothing new. the only way to get something new is to watch them fight with each other which is entertaining. it is not informative. >> you're a word guy, i see rubio who is repeatedly saying throughout this whole campaign that he's running on a positive message it's not his job to knock down the other candidates. he is clearly shifting tactics. he's been hammered by trump. saying things like trump is a con artist. he says that in every other sentence now, saying things like trump is a clown act. does that change the tone of the media coverage in the way the press views marco rubio? >> not only does it change the coverage, it now gives full license for everyone to be flat out hostile to everybody else and to be as rude as you can possibly be. >> you're saying the media is
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encouraging the war of words? >> definitely. camera is on. red light is on. go. the problem is it created an uncivil environment. my focus groups, i could not stop people from talking. we went live and i actually had two women speaking. i could not pay attention as we went live because they were so angry with each other that they were arguing. h howie, we've lost the civility and decency. i hope we get i back between now and november. >> i'm with you on. that i think the media clear when it comes to donald trump, really missed this year, the anger and frustration out there that is now so evidence. thank you for being here. nice to see you. after the break, rich lowry's national view declared war on donald trump. where does that leave him and other conservatives if trump wins the gop nomination? later, things get ugly as
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i built my business with passion. but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy for my studio. ♪ and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... that's huge for my bottom line. what's in your wallet? the harshest media criticism of donald trump has come from the right. with commentators attacking him on both personal and policy grounds so where does trump's growing success leave him now. the national review has declared war on trump with 22 conservatives and rich lowry and a fox news contributor joins me now from new york. rich, you've gone hard after trump. there's no secret.
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you've called him a huckster. he keeps winning primaries. is his vision closer to that of republican voters than yours and your magazine? >> well, i think it may be that this particular year, the conditions are right. and trump's candidate attributes are right and the field is fracturing just right for a populist rather than a conservative to win the nomination. but it's obviously still conservative party or trump wouldn't be going out of his way to try to sell himself as a conservative the way he is. >> right. it's not just you. >> it's charles krauthammer and george will and joan goldberg and erick erickson. let's assume trump does win the nomination. is there any way when he's the party candidate that can you say perhaps we were hasty and he has good qualities? >> well, we'll see. one of the things we want to see if he actually does win the
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nomination is how he runs as a general election candidate. our fear would be that this particular moment is the high water mark for donald trump's conservatism. >> interesting. you said we'll see. i thought you would say no way. and by the way, you know, to the extent that surprised me, there were a lot of republicans who kind of pushed back when you came out with that special issue and say, you know, you're a bunch of intellectual elitists. you go to conferences and cruises. you sounded like you were leaving the door open to say, for example, donald trump would be preferable to hillary clinton. >> well, we'll have to see. it's a collective decision made by our editorial board. the question will be does donald trump represent our beliefs and values enough for us to put our official stamp on him. again, we'll have to see. we're very proud of what we did. our role, howie, is not to get on anyone's band wagon. it's not to read the polls. it's not to get with the program or fall in line. it's to represent conservatism and these ideas and our principles.
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and bill buckley created us, founded us, for that role. and i'm absolutely certain he'd be proud of what we did. and, in fact, when he wrote about donald trump 15 years ago, he called him a narcissist and a demagogue. >> as you pointed out. i understand national review represents a collective decision. but you as appear on television and give your own opinions. bill kristol, for example, said there is no way he could support trump and he would support someone running from the right as far as a third party co. you see yourself going there? >> again, it totally depends. we need to see the way trump runs and how the field breaks out. it's a very odd year. there may be a third or fourth candidate in this race. and if there's someone closer to what we really believe, that's going to be very tempting for us. but in terms of my commentary and in terms of our reporting, we're going to cover trump the way we do anyone else. when he's wrong, we're going to ding him. when he's right, we're going to support him. >> so you're not willing to say
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right now -- i understand it's a long campaign, a lot can happen. we'll see how this looks in a month, we'll see how this looks in three months. but you're not willing to say that there's no way if all the harsh criticism you made of donald trump that there is no way you could possibly support him as the gop nominee? >> we're going to have a very lively debate about that and see it going on on twiser this weekend. we have conservatives having a debate among themselves. >> richard, deflecting the question. is there any way you could see yourself ultimately supporting donald trump? >> no, i have answered the question about three or four times. our editorial board will collectively make the decision when and if he gets nomination and when we see how he's going to run. howie, he hasn't really run as much of a conservative to this point. and it could get much worse because this guy is a salesman. he clearly is playing to republicans to some extent. i'm not convinced he believes half the things that he says. there may nobody case that he's
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a conservative even for his supporters once he's won the nomination. >> we shall see. my job to press you. we appreciate your time. thank, rich lowery. >> thanks, howie. coming up, is facebook turning poisonous? people spew venom about the candidates they despise. i was going to give it a try, but i didn't really think it was going to really happen. after one week of chantix, i knew i could quit. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. chantix definitely helped reduce my urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. some had seizures while taking chantix. if you have any of these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of mental health problems, which could get worse or of seizures. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you have these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening.
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once confined to facebook, it turned as polarizing in the presidential election. even a site called friends to like trump.com helps identify such supporters and kick them out of your social media circle. joining us is a technology executive here in washington. i'm really seeing this on my facebook page. the tone and particularly people yelling for and against trump is not very facebook-like. what do you see? >> facebook, you think of this friendly neighborhood where i
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would go to see stories of my friends travels and pickings of my friend's kids or dogs. now as you log on, it is comments, fights being picked between people on facebook and it's really deteriorated a lot in my opinion the last few months. opinion in the past few months. >> more like twitter where you expect to see a lot of brawls and ugly breaking out. >> i saw people start deleting people who support trump and w madeline cane blocking an unnamed bernie supporters calling hillary a wall street hooker and worse and things i can't say on the air. >> things that surprised me that i know that are political and people coming out of the woodwork that i didn't know had political views or wasn't familiar with the political views. one of my friends or colleagues shared a story from a news outlet on trump with the comment yes if you intend to donald
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trump unfriend me. >> i want nothing further to do than you're dead to me. >> i don't want anything to do with it at all. >> a lot of people not interested in politics are energized and engaged and also using pretty harsh language. how important is this given the sheer size of facebook? >> you think about 2008 and the last big presidential campaign, 145 million users on facebook, might not mean much to you and now there's 2 billion plus. >> two elections later. >> and we're spending more and more time on facebook, embedded in our daily lives, not getting views of friends in real life and staying 20 minutes on facebook every day and getting all these views that are -- >> you probably spend hours on facebook but you're not a typical user. >> let's not talk about that right now. yeah, it's become a lot more part of our lives and engrained in the way we think about things. >> could this hurt mark zuckerberg's brand and could it
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continue and continue after the 2016 race is over? >> the last thing facebook wants is people to stop engaging in facebook because it's a lot of vitrioloic and negative sentiments on facebook. now we don't have the like button and the angry face as of this week and different ways to react. >> also a love button. >> correct, but i -- we tweeted about the story right before we came on and kate on twitter responded about facebook being more toxic. she said i don't unfriend people and engage less and stay away from facebook as much as possible because it's stressful. stressful to go on to facebook for people. >> it really hits it. on the one hand great that people get to express their views and a great platform, democracy in action, but the more it begins people yelling at each other or saying i'm not going to be friends with you because of your political views it doesn't seem like a friendly place. facebook was found on making and cultivating friends so i'm wondering whether this is really going to turn some people off.
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>> i think that facebook is probably a little bit concerned about that, too, and their hope is probably after the election cycle that it turns back around, that there's a little more civility that comes back to facebook. >> what can facebook do, basically created this platform and people can be friendly or ugly. >> they can unfollow people now on facebook which i must admit i've done before but they have to just watch it and try to engage people with videos and fun things, pictures of dogs. >> great to see you. let me know what you think on facebook on this all-important question. still to come, melissa harris-perry's racial accusations against msnbc as she walks off her space and kevin spacey unmerciless president and "house of cards" is now media driven.
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thank you. imagine if the things you bought every day... ...earned you miles to get to the places you really want to go. with the united mileageplus explorer card, you'll get a free checked bag, two united club passes, priority boarding, and 30,000 bonus miles. everything you need for an unforgettable vacation. the united mileageplus explorer card. imagine where it will take you. melissa harris-perry walked off her msnbc show this weekend and things have got erin pretty ugly. the liberal political science professor whose program airs in part when we're on found her show preempted the last two weeks. she says the show was, quote, taken without comment or
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discussion or notice and then she ratcheted things up against two white executives, nbc news president andrew lack hand msnbc president phil griffin saying, quote, i won't be used as a tool for their purposes. i'm not a token, mammy or little brown bobblehead. i'm not owned by lack, griffin or msnbc. i love our show. i want it back. unmistakable racial references, and msnbc had drawn flack for dropping the shows of black hosts such as joy reed and alex wagner and msnbc saying the preemptions were for basic breaking political news and called her scathing comments really surprising, confusing and disappointing. it does sound like msnbc treated her a bit poorly but it's really unfortunate that she played the race card. "the washington post" reporting this morning that msnbc executives plan to drop melissa harris-perriy and given her extraordinary racial blast i don't blame them. in our top tweets should the media be kribing donald trump as all but unstoppable? dale dempsey, of course they should. they would for anybody else in
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his position. w.guy funnily, trump has 81 out of 1,026 delegates needed to win, i don't think that's unstoppable. >> they won't stop it, they want a clinton/trump win and the media should stop owl average on the monster they treated. >> kevin spacey was in town to publicize the new season of "house of cards" and he plays the ruthless president frank underwood who is nastier than some politicians. the netflix star turned media critic asked which is more surprising the snow's new season or the real life presidential campaign and spacey said it was silly to compare the two and then added this. >> but, you know, at the same time i -- you know, i happen to believe that we get what we deserve and that edward r. murrow warned us in 1964 that when news divisions decide that the news has to make money and has to get ratings it's no
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longer news. it's entertainment, so if people are bothered by the fact that we seem to be having entertainment as news, it's because the news divisions decided that money and ratings were more important than reporting. >> and then he smiled. the news business is a business, just like netflix is. on a personal note that question came from the hill columnist judy kirst who is my daughter and when asked if politicians should seek endorsements he said i'm an actor, he said and gave me a little bit nervous he gave her the frank underwood death star. >> that's it for this edition of "media buzz." follow us on twitt twitter @howardkurtz. like our facebook page, post a lot of original question and let
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me know about the facebook comment, is it turning more toxic and contentious? i'll see you on the night of super tuesday, and we're back here next sunday with the latest buzz. a fox news alert. the republican presidential candidates making their final push ahead of super tuesday. donald trump, marco rubio and ted cruz criss-crossing throughout a broad section of the country trying to shore up last-minute support before voters have their say in just 48 hours. hello, welcome to a brand new hour inside america's headquarters. i'm arthel neyville. >> and good to see you again today. i'm eric shawn. man oh, man it's wide on the campaign trail, no shortage of attacks between the top candidates. front-runner donald trump campaigning to hold his lead and ted cruz and marco rubio, well, they are attempting to gain some grou.
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