washington journal continues. host: howard kurtz is the media host for the fox news channel and the latest howard kurtz and author of "media madness" donald trump, the press, and the war over the truth". good morning could you connect the dots? >> there is a scorecard for warfare going on between all sides and talking even the clinton white house there was a natural adversarial tension that we have never seen anything like this or such unrelentingly negative coverage often very personal in nature as we see with this president or any president of

the united states constant against the media and i think it is damaging both sides so my great concern is it is damaging thein press more. >> how has that changed? >> we saw this beginning in the campaign when first of all , the pundits as a whole did intake trump all that seriously as a sideshow of course he would never make it and everybody knew he would not beat e clinton. but but there were these gloom and doom prophecies about this controversy but we see that again now there is a sense in the mainstream press that many say about trump's presidency first that tells you that many

reporters view him that he is unhinged or mentally unbalanced or incompetent but also a dictator with that range of descriptions. at the same time to go behind the scenes at the trump white house i talk about how the president suffers from defiance disorder they tell them not to and he does it anyway it was very effective to lash out at the press which the supporters believed treated him unfairly in times when he goes too far with his own agenda. >>host: he told things to you about negative coverage? >> in fact i first met him in the late '80s in new york that is one of the reasons i did not underestimate him in the campaign.

but he said he could not get over the fact how they had hatred for him. he is a counter venture so then he hates back on but at the same time he was wounded by that. because he really wants people he always had good good media coverage but one year ago private off the record they asked the biggest surprise as president that you never changed your coverage when i became president with all the major events or charlottesville tragedy, russianaj best occasion, investigation but also meets privately with people and others there is a way that he

works them. >>host: donald trump is taking the presidency as the election to destroy the credibility of the news media and they try to do the same to him and you expand on that. >> it turns out to be good box office for those who are largely appealing to the anti- trump audience so 63 million americans voted for him and actively support this president so to them not only do they think their champion is treated unfairly but they do believe with some justification the elite media look down on them condescendingly and there is one headline in the huffington post to vote for trump was a

hate crime so that does undercut the credibility of the media. >>host: media buys host on fox news howard kurtz is booked "media madness" donald trump, the press, and the war over the truth" if you want to ask questions. >>host:st does president trump enjoy relations but is fox news a part of that? >> i thought about that but first of all in the campaign he told me fox news was treating him unfairly that there are conservative commentators like national review or the weekly standard who were still pretty critical of him as president so he

doesn't enjoy a cheering squad on the right. there were some or prime time news or fox and friends are more sympathetic than other news channels but at the same time sometimes when he pushes back against the media and i give examples sometimes he does that as a strategy to take the spotlight off of something else but other times it is good policy for his loyale supporters so to beat up on those they don't trust anyway this happened long before he was in politics so the business that i love and grew up in and want to be perceived as fair and right now it is the cool thing to do to be against donald trump. will he survive?

mentally able to handle the office? and that seems not fair. >> are you concerned what happens to the next president? >> and beyond that if he is no longer president may think some of the self-inflicted they are seen as one-sided they don't trust those fact checkers everybody is in their own ideological bubble but that damage done now it is from the investigative reporting, but collectively the damage done now probably will last far beyond donald trump's presidency. >>host: valley cottage new york republican line go ahead before teen good morning i watch your show every sunday.

you are the academy of fair and balanced. you have a terrific show i wish there was a weekly show. but the reason that i call is fox has been stressing lately about uranium one incident the president has mentioned it and senator barrasso wrote an article in the opinion section of the wall street journal on february 8 which discusses this can you have the senator on your show? maybe pedro could bring that up but it clears up a lot why we have the shoresg of uranium. >> i don't think there is any question that the influence around the clinton foundation or the speeches but at thee same time i'm not saying it

should not be looked at but hillary clinton lost the election and so some people who excessively focus on her in part are trying to deflect attention from the investigation of president trump so we have had one year of investigations we had another one with those 13 russians that had no act on the part of anybody so we don't know where this will end but that focus seems not to have hurt whole lot it isn't a hoax it is a real investigation and most recently against the 13 russians so it is best to be fair to cover this investigation it is news and it is serious but at the same time we shouldn't be hyping

every incremental development. >>host: the independent mine from north carolina. >> caller: howard you do a great job and the reason i watch fox news is because they tell the truth i will turn over to another station to hear what they are saying and it is a lie they don't put everything into it. and i just believe in fox news because they tell the truth just like hannity i love him. tucker is awesome. keep it up you do a great job i know your heart is in the media keep it up because we look for the truth to you the rest of the media does not tell the truth i'm sorry to say they have completely lost

it to the white democrat. >> thank you for the kind words i have written a book about often unfair coverage but i wouldn't go so fair far to say no media tells the truth but they do have an agenda and what they say privately or twitter when they think their friends are listening like a new york times reporter who said privately to the r&d staff member is a racialist and fascist such as the wall street journal reporter said on twitter after that pair long -- president pulled out of the paris climate deal that he was threatening the planet just to appease his base so now since fox came up we have a news division that try to

cover the president fairly and then we have opinion people who seems to be a big fan of hannity and tucker. >>host: when she says she has seen the truth but points to the opinion people is that a concern? >> i think most are pretty sophisticated. people have a natural tendency to agree with the overall viewth so like rachel on msnbc most are very liberal she isy a rhodes scholar i think she does go too far but i understand that tribal loyalty with a hyper partisan media atmosphere.in i just remind people this is true on the new york times and msnbc with a front-page op-ed there are people are in the business to be fair and balanced and others are conservative libertarians who

are in the business of giving opinion. >> caller: pedro i do not believe anything this man spouts out donald trump is a racist and he is a klansman i don't believe anything coming out of the mouth of the republican party. >>host: since we have our guest right here address your comment or question directly to him. >> caller: for eight years democrats have to sit here and listen to the republican party after president obama but it will be a new dayt in 2018 because every black and brown and democrat will go out there

and we will show this fool sitting appear to glorifyfo trumpp. >>host: he is our guest we do not want to insulttn him but yu have seen many administrations did obama get a pass? be making the campaign i have never seen that treatment you cannot dispute that but the first term it was a little rougher in the second term and had trouble to get things throughh but the caller there is a lot of people who feel thatl way that donald trump is a polarizing president people that love him and he tells it like it is and a straight shooter does not weigh his words carefully and those thinking never should have been president so walmart views of the media are the way

of that president that you will not like a lot of back coverage if you think he is a terrible president you're probably not a fan of fox news coverage you will like the liberal attackers but i try in this book to stick to the facts there is a lot of reporting in this book but also his dealings with his staff to engage in self-destructive leaks we are seeing this right now and even steve bannon got into finger-pointing battles. i know everybody has opinions. >>host: your book "media madness" donald trump, the press, and the war over the matruth" virginia republican

line go ahead. .>> caller: good morning gentlemen. i love your show. we never saw the ratings just like cnn flipped the switch on the coverage and has been bad ever since so how many of these have left and moved over to fox? thinking that maybe that will make a difference. the woman that commented about the opinions but when they show those numbers that were violated or stuff that is obviously illegal, they may not like what they are hearing but at least they tell you exactly what was done wrong. how can anybody else ignore those facts? how do they ignore those statute violations? >> the irony is a question of

ratings. msnbc which was really struggling a few years ago is having ratings the highest in the history of that channel and fox news it is also up it is also the number one cable news from two decades but overall taking a more skeptical sometimes negative and unfair approach to president trump to help the other two cable news challenge the president calls it a feeling new york times that the whole paper that goes to the whole relationship digital subscriptions are way up so as both eyes are locked into this ugly battle, trump is in a gold mine for these organizations to present a fat

target for him for that portion of the country. >>host: does donald trump have that same attitude? how does that change with television with his career and how he treated and used the media? >> he always has an intuitive feel how to make news as i watch firsthand covering him in new york covering his divorce that the new york daily news was on opposite sides i remember calling him during that time and saying he will not call me back but he called me right back for the soundbite. he knows controversy sells even when he is beat up he learned of this in new york and it is true todayay negative coverage helps this president but when he is getting beat up with his handling of anything

it means every story is like defending or attacking trump so the term that i don't use but when he hits back at the news organizations that extends the new cycle because we love to talk about ourselves so now to say he gives this free air time but he gave hundreds of interviews most of the others did not he would dominate that news agendaou that is important even with the big bully pulpit. maybe we need a break but apparently that is not happenin happening. >>host: we just figured this out with a russian investigation to say have been much tougher than obama look at the facts so talk about twitter how has that changed thehi reporting? >> we all work 24:76 o'clock in the morning he has already

tweeted i go for a sandwich i come back the world has changed. it is a way for him to communicate with his people so do sometimes as close as people believe he goes too far? and should not giving nicknames to the journalist? he did that and there is a whole back story of their relationship now issh hostile sometimes he does that to distract but it isn't something that will and that they cannot take away his phone it is part of who he is and helped him get elected. he has toned it down at times and that has helped him but inevitably when something ticks him off he watches cable news and that is in response to the russians' response had

to do that he claimed he hadmo criticism but to say this is a terrible attack on the country withtr retaliation he got criticism for that and then they hit back hard on twitter. >> hearing about the formal how muchference access does donald trump give? >> just by press conferences it is very little. but journalists will tell you privately that donald trump provides reporters with more access thann barack obama just about every day he stops to take questions or the photo offer standby the helicopter. photographers say they have more access than off the

record part he has had several off the record meetings with the president so what happens the president starts yelling and then chuck yells back then they settled down to a simple conversation so then chuck turnsn' to say we just can't quit each other. >>host: independent line. >> caller: i used to watch fox and msnbc i skip the opinion people but both sides tell the truth but they just emphasize different stories that supports their worldview orwi philosophy so you don't hear anything with the other people say. so i willth say that with cable

news i stopped watching and my life is so much better. it just makes everybody crazy. >> thank you. theree are people that are contentious with that polarized nature of cable news especially because politics seems so polarizing there are days i don't turn on the tv to get a break. i understand people wanting to watch c-span instead but i do notice on my columns are on my program president trump may get more play on certain

channels but then you show a negative story then go wall to wall prime time i call it the evening earthquake normally about 730 at night they put it online and cnn and msnbc can go wall to wall having those contributors on to talk about it. fox may do that differently but like being the informed consumer with one political stripe or another to see what the other side is saying. that is more than just being in the eco- chamber. >> how many are based on the unnamed sources? has that increased and as an old investigative reporter we say they cannot be doing that

with unnamed sources but it is way overused and political stories people taking pot shots papers are supposed to have rules about that but john kelly chief of staff is under a lot of heat with the presidential a that have the allegations that he had to ask wives a lot of leaks from other officials and others who are struggling to keep his hold on the staff but the washington post quoted one official anonymously without putting the persons name on the line to say kelly is a big fat liar if you want to make thean case and if he deviated in this area it is no question but to say big fat liar or it is a cup i don't think we

should be granting anonymity to those potshots. >>host: democratic line go ahead. >> caller: i have a question for the guest. four years since the 70s the fbi has always gone after protesters environmentalist and reading the story once and they spied on the boy scouts because they were antiwar. but then they have them labeled as a terrorist. or if you are a tree hugger to call them a terrorist organization. so why isn't anybody calling

the russians terrorist? t3a things cyberterrorist is the term that i would use. no question it was a coordinated effort with the indirect blessing of the russianrn government. with a campaign disruption that not just the posts on facebook or those fake twitter identities but those indictments showed that they impersonated americans to engage in identity theft, or fake social security numbers, it is a broad attack. so talk about the past decades the fbi was used and misused. it is controversial that those have been corrected after that

exposure and as far as your other point. >>host: just to show you the media was more tribal taking it as a badge of personal identity and then to be split into the ideological camp only a slight deviation with their version of the truth. >> this isn't just about my book i will do a show i will have a a guess that are anti- trump will present the facts and i will read the same segment why should we trust you the others will say you are so far it is pathetic so why sam not pro- or anti- trump i am with journalism and that is the point i have a home here that some people are so wedded to ideology they aren't that interested in the

presentation of the media that supports their own views. >> what is the worst criticism? >> this is fascinating a few months ago i bumped into him. he said your problem is you are to down the middle. i said mr. president that is a compliment but he told me i was too neutral which of course is my job. if that is the worst criticism that is okay. it has been interesting to watch is e evolution. people in their ideological opinions i believe the coverage of the president goes beyond ideology. because you go back to reagan or george w bush did not have a lot of sympathy with policy but with this president it is

more personal and visceral the way he talks he sounds like the guy atat the bar and a lot of people like that. should he choose his words more carefully? sure. but ideology as of the only prism to view the coverage so look at what it is with donald trump getting under the skin of the journalist. >> republican why minneapolis. on caller: good morning. the lady from new york please don't cut me off. she mentioned how the one side would not talk about anything but the mainstream media has become so unhinged and so personal and hateful it is

constant negative coverage of president trump. but the other thing is they don't talk about his accomplishments, the good economy, all the things that he has done, cutting regulation he won -- they just talk so awful about him as a person. the other thing that c-span itself reads from all liberal papers, washington post, new york times. >> including the washington times and washington examiner. >> there have been times when the president has rare amounts of positive coverage including

syria even critics said barack obama did not do that but from first-year he was measured what he got through congress which wasn't much he finally passed the tax cut they said he didn't have that bad of a year he/regulation the economy is doing well. so it is a be grudging acknowledgment he was doing better but in those moments with the state of the union was pretty good that it last one day or a day and ada half now let's go chase this what about this hurricane? so whatever positive coverage he gets, it tends to be overtaken and sometimes by his own tweets he knows those

drivege news coverage so sometimes he steps on his own good news. >> what about the playboy models coverage with donald trump asked. >> i have the impression neither of these latest two cases b have been as big as they might have been because it involves his private life a decade ago that was baked into the cake they were not electing a choir boy it is similar toai clinton but in these two cases of allegations of the hush money one by the personal lawyer that wasn't completely explained what that was with the allegations from the national enquirer but that

seems to be more recent and moreat troublesome i'm not sure that story has gone away but those tabloid stories with is the same thing from 1998 when those allegations turned out to be true of the other women in his life sometimes we cannot escape covering that. >>host: independent line go ahead. >> caller: i love your show and when i can't see it i record it but to touch on a couple of points with trump and the outlets he has he talks to anybody and everybody that is what i like about him he is a regular guy not a politician. barack obama, clinton and bush

wouldn't say anything to begin with but i can't wait to read your book but do you think he will ever be liked? like against biden how do you feel how people will appreciate him in the next two or three years? >> i thought once he became president whatever they may say negatively he can be charmingh he was even making nice with chuck schumer and nancy pelosi but it hasn't happened and part of that is and i am notot optimistic with that relationship is both sides have strong incentives to keep the warfare up on the president. so as i said news

organizations, many of them are getting a big audience for reporting that seems to be largely anti- trump. so when he doesn't like a story he attacks thehe press. that workshe for him more than any other president i have seen. right now it is all about donald trump getting into 2019 and 2020 with other candidates runningg then how do you feel about this president? wrong or right versus a living and breathing human being who has a record and that will change the coverage somewhat. >>host: windsor connecticut democratic line. >> caller: good morning.

i have a point to make is it true legislation takes two or four years to have an effect on the economy and what we see? we make the comments that trump is in office less than two years the economy does well isn't that was done from the previous administration? >> he did in herod a relatively good economy from barack obama when he took office and unemployment was already pretty low but at the same time that has continued despite the recent reverses of the stock market the dow is way up compared to when he tookid office i say the president gets too much credit when it goes off into much blame when it goes down. that is his role in the dow was soaring some legislative

changes take a couple of years but not tax cuts the beginning of this month they should be taking effect. but the polls are showing he is getting a little more popular. so to look at a ideological panel that is for somebody else. relating to the judgment with the economy after a year i would say yes but at the same time he hasn't done anything to impede the growth that most people i have felt. >>host: we are short on time. go ahead republican from texas. >> caller: i am 84 years old there was a time in my life when walter cronkite you might not agree with him but then

along came dan rather and this is where we are today. >> dan rather is still active and very anti- trump and is in an opinion about so we do have a lot of respect for him getting the news from the network newscast. cable news it is more fractured and polarized that has created a lot more niches for opinion and the pundits and they have a great respect for them but they are not coming back. >> audi you keep editorial controls? >> i can put on the air to say what i want and if i make a mistake it is on me. i try to keep that in mind. so i got this from other

organizations because i am a media critic because too often i have to deal with colleagues who make a mistake. . . . . i think in the end that adds to your credibility. what is the format and when is it on. it should be on daily. we take a look at sports

controversies hollywood. we do it with a balanced panel. we've a lot of fun doing it. i did this version. when i criticize the mainstream media i am a product of the media. is the author of media madness. thank you for being our guests. book tv is on twitter and facebook and we want to hear from you. or post a comment on her facebook page. tara westover.

the formal education at age 17. interviewed by sue hannah covalent. it's a weekly interview program. the top nonfiction authors. i am so happy and thrilled to be here with you today for this book. i have to tell you this is one of the most extraordinary memoirs that i ever have read. i was blown away by this. in reading it for a second time even made up my experience with it that much more profound. i just wanted to dive right in. i wanted to ask you to read a bit from the p.